Fur Powered Love
by OneCreativeIdiot
Summary: Alex and Gia's relationship is recognized and moves up to the ultimate level. Though they are both happy, just as everyone else is for them, there are a few difficulties that they come across and must face. Meanwhile, Skipper is relieving his inner rage with some "new" vocabulary words. {CHAPTER 8 WILL SOON BE REVAMPED AND SPLIT INTO TWO CHAPTERS}
1. Chapter 1

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story closely resembles any R-rated romantic comedy film out there. That means there are no full sex scenes at all- mostly because that's not my game as a fanfic writer. If you wanted to see some of the characters go all the way, I calmly ask that you GET LOST! As for everyone else, I'll allow you to read what I have in store for you all. Enjoy, review, favor, and follow, and I'll talk to you later!

DISCLAIMER: All elements of the "Madagascar" franchise are property of DreamWorks Animation.

Not one of the twenty-eight animals of the Fur Power Circus- also known by the animals as the Afro Circus -could believe it. It had been over a year since they finally hit major commercial success in England and had commenced their American Tour. More than half of the animals who were part of the original circus- the number possibly being fifteen -were grateful (even though they were doubtful at first) that the thirteen other animals who appeared before them in a train yard located somewhere in France would make major changes in their show after they saw how much they were dwindling in fame and popularity. Drawing on the same tactics of other entertainment venues, the animals were able to establish their own new show; and with the aid of futuristic technology, they were capable of generating more profits than any of them could have ever imagined. What was even more interesting about their circus was that no human performers were involved- definitely something worth seeing; and it was.

The Fur Power Circus had spent the last fifteen months performing for hundreds of audiences throughout most of the Northern United States. Some of the animals wanted to go down south for their tour, but the animals of higher power disagreed. They were later thankful when a devastating hurricane swept through the country's east side. After hearing about the appalling devastation the storm left behind, the circus donated a generous amount of money to support the clean up effort and the families who lose their homes. This earned them a charitable reputation to their family-friendly shows.

The circus train had now stopped somewhere in Minnesota. The following show was to be their last since the weather in the state was incredibly frigid when winter would appear. As downhearted as they were since there would be nothing to do until the conditions warmed up, all of the animals were still determined that they should make the next show the best they could make it. During the rehearsals, an enthusiastic atmosphere was present throughout the towering circus tent, which took the shape of a magnificent castle seen in stories of princes and princesses. For the duration of the session, the circus animals made sure that they knew the right moves and when to pull them off.

When it came time for a short break, the animals caught their breath and exited the immense tent. They decided to relax in the boxcars that made up most of the long train. On the way there, the joyous atmosphere that was present in the circus tent followed over every animal to the train. It was especially compelling for a lion with a striking-shaped mane. His name was Alex. He was one of the thirteen non-circus animals who joined and recreated the once-failing circus. As perhaps all lions were, Alex was the leader of the animals since the revived circus went into business. He also had a thrilling part in the show- he was a trapeze artist. His function was to perform aerial acrobatic moves such as flips and catches which wowed audiences everywhere. That was one of the many reasons why all of their past shows sold out so quickly.

Alex soon met up with the three animals that he knew- as a matter of fact, the three animals he grew up with. He was found as a cub in a crate floating near New York City and taken to the Central Park Zoo once he was examined for an injury or illness. Little Alex was at first afraid for his life since he was far away from his parents in the African savanna, who he could expect they were as upset as he was that they lost their precious cub. However, he soon became a celebrity when he began dancing on top of the giant rock-like prop that was built for the enclosure. Later on, Alex came to meet a trio of young animals who lived close to his habitat. There was an admirable hippo calf named Gloria, who was a very talented swimmer as most hippos were; a worrywart of a giraffe calf named Melman, who was pretty much the most ailing animal anyone in the entire city ever saw; and then there was a carefree zebra foal named Marty, who first regarded Alex as a show off because of how well he could captivate his audience, but once he got to know him better, soon became his best friend. Not too long afterwards, Gloria and Melman joined their little group of friends and the memories began.

Their friendship grew as they got older and the good times never seemed to end. That was until Marty encountered four agent-like penguins who claimed they were escaping the zoo to go live in "the Wild". This intrigued the zebra to go with them, only for it to result in Alex, Gloria, and Melman to track him down. Upon doing so, the animals were surrounded by animal control officers in Grand Central Station and immediately tranquilized. They all found themselves in massive crates on a cargo ship bound for a wildlife preserve in Africa. Everything would've been fine if those penguins did not hijack the sea vessel. When they swung the ship violently, the four zoo animals in their crates slid into the ocean; and when they were able to break free from their wooden prison cells, they all found themselves on the island of Madagascar. Tensions were high among them- mostly between Marty and Alex since the lion was accustomed to his zoo environment and the zebra desired to see "the Wild" for himself. Despite his constant attempts to signal for help, Alex eventually settled in and got use to his new surroundings.

It was all the start of something new for the quartet- a massive jungle for them to explore and maybe some peace and quiet. That all changed when Alex's primitive nature emerged due to the lack of food he was often confronting. It was especially dangerous for his friends because lions were carnivores and animals like them were seen only as a full meal. None of them believed it until Alex attacked and bit Marty on the tag end, resulting in them running away from him and for Alex to go into self exile. The penguins- as well as two chimpanzees named Mason and Phil -arrived on the island in the same cargo ship and helped them get their lion friend back and motivate him to start eating fish.

Alex smiled as he recalled the rest of the story in his mind. Upon their discovery that the ship was out of fuel, the penguins got to work constructing a functional airplane out of the wreckage of one that was once was. Once it was complete, they departed for their destination: New York City. Also along for the ride were a trio of lemurs- King Julian XIII, a crazy and childish Ring-tailed Lemur who was (as he name states) the King of the Lemurs of Madagascar, Maurice, an Aye Aye who was King Julian's adviser but always hated what he would do to him, and Mort, an adorable Goodman's Mouse Lemur who had an awkward obsession with King Julian's feet. Their trip was cut short because the plane- as surprising as it seemed that it had any left -didn't have enough fuel to make it to New York City. Once the tanks ran dry, the penguins had to perform a crash landing, breaking the weak plane and leaving the animals stranded in yet another unfamiliar place. It turned out to be an African savanna. Alex was swept with joy when he finally met his mother and father. Melman and Gloria also found themselves in unbreakable love. And though the penguins and chimps rebuilt the airplane into a machine they called the "monkey-powered Super Plane", since the mechanism was operated by the power of over a dozen chimpanzees, and took off for Monte Carlo in France, everyone enjoyed their new temporary home.

Eventually, though, Alex grew more desperate to return to New York City. His wishes to journey back to the zoo were so great, he actually convinced Marty, Gloria, Melman, and the Lemurs to travel to Monte Carlo and get the penguins and chimps. The long way there was out of the question; but pulling off the retrieval plan was easier said than done. A combination of tensions and mild stupidity led to their cover being blown. Animal control was contacted and they chased the animals throughout the city. The leader of the squad was a woman named Chantel Dubois, who was incredibly obsessed with capturing Alex so she could mount his head on her wall. They were able to escape her and, when the Super Plane crashed in the train yard and came across the circus train, convinced the animals that they were circus animals.

Alex halted where he was and glanced around. The other circus animals were already inside the boxcars they had entered and were now enjoying a few minutes of relaxation. The lion knew that they all deserved it. Life had been immensely hard for the original fifteen circus animals since that one fateful performance when one of them was involved in an accident that caused him to shed his reputation right off as if it was dead skin. But all it took was Alex's speech and advice that inspired the fallen animal- just like the others -to try again, and make new changes. That was all it took to bring the circus back on its heels and restart as a new, modernized show.

While their debut show in London was a humongous success, Alex was forced to admit that he and his companions were zoo animals after an attack by Dubois that left behind a poster of him in his old zoo enclosure. The circus animals were shocked and devastated to learn that they had been deceived. They decided to carry on with the show without them. However, Alex and his pals snuck aboard the ship that was to take the circus to New York City and the group made their way back to the Central Park Zoo. It was then when the quartet realized that they enjoyed every moment in the past after they broke out of the zoo. They were determined to return to the circus, only for their hopes to be cut short when Dubois- who had somehow followed them all to America -tranquilized them. Her plans to behead Alex and mount his head were changed when the zoo found out its star animal had been returned. Dubois then came up with a secret strategy to kill him.

On the night Alex was welcomed back, she put her plan into action. Hiding a lethal tranquil dart inside of a foam finger, Dubois pointed it at Alex and fired. It would've struck the lion in the chest if he wasn't pulled up in the nick of time. The circus animals had come back to rescue him, Marty, Melman, and Gloria- for they had comprehended that without them, they would end up a big failure once again. With their trickery forgiven and Dubois defeated after a strenuous battle, the circus animals allowed Alex and his friends to join the circus once more, and they all become one big happy family.

Just recollecting the past was enough for Alex to depart from the real world and enter a relm that can only exist deep in the mind of anyone. What was different about his vision from any other dream world, it appeared more like the actual world he lived in. The only things that made it unlike the real world was that everything was ever so peaceful. Birds sang such wonderful tunes, the weather was so warm, the land was decorated with millions of multi-colored flowers, and the sky was cloudless. In his own world, Alex marveled at his surroundings, taking in every possible moment he could. He took in as much as he could when a well known voice snapped him out of his fantasy. It shouted, "Alex!"

After shaking his head and turning around, Alex saw Marty with his head poking out of the opened boxcar he was in- as was Melman and Gloria. The lion chuckled as he made his way to his lifelong pals inside the wooden car. "How come you were just standing there like that?" Marty asked, not in concern but in curiosity.

"I guess I was just remembering the past," Alex replied as he hopped into the boxcar.

"Were you?" Marty inquired with an eyebrow raised- he wasn't skeptical, but he was interested.

"Yeah; I guess so," said Alex.

As he could see, Melman and Gloria were on one side of the boxcar, relaxing in massive bean bag chairs. From what anyone could tell, both were lost in each others eyes, as in fact they were- as odd as it may be to accept -boyfriend and girlfriend. The two lovebirds started their relationship while they were in Africa. Gloria had once fallen in love with another hippo, but as it turned out, he only loved her for her physically appearance and nothing else. Melman had a long history of keeping his secret feelings about Gloria hidden, and when she started dating the male hippo, he soon unleashed them before her. Alex couldn't quite remember what happened next; Marty didn't tell him much that particular day. But from that point on wards, both the lion and zebra supported the giraffe and hippo's relationship whenever they could.

Alex strolled across the wooden floor and got comfy on the hide-a-bed. Marty swaggered over and asked, "What were you remembering about the past that was so important?"

"I don't know," Alex replied with a shrug. "I guess I was only looking back at all of the good times the four of us had."

"Really?" Gloria asked intrigued.

"Like when?" Melman inquired.

"All of the good times," said Alex. "You guys know what I'm talking about. When we saved Christmas that one year. When we destroyed the dam to bring water back to the watering hole."

Marty, in the same tone of voice as Alex, said, "When you bit me on the butt."

Gloria and Melman laughed as Alex shook his head while he still had a smile on his face. "You will never let that go, will you, Marty?" he questioned.

Marty pretended he hadn't heard Alex's question as he flopped down beside him. While he was distracted, Alex threw his arm around Marty and drew him closer. Clutching his zebra pal by the lower neck, the lion commenced rubbing one side of his fist on the top of his head. Marty struggled to break free from Alex's roughhousing but it was no use. He did not let go until Gloria ordered Alex to "cut it out with the horsing around".

Once he had been released, Marty felt his blood begin to boil from anger. But he quickly cooled down and commented, "You certainly have your moments, Alex."

"Of course I do," said Alex in pride. "I am a lion after all, and we are tough built."

"Says the one who got kicked in the batteries one too many times by an old lady," Marty retorted.

"That's something else you'll never let go, huh?"

"Who said I would never let it go? If I'm correct, nobody besides the four of us knows that."

"Well, thank heavens for that."

"What? Do you think that the others will never let you hear the end of it?"

"No; it's not that, Marty. It's because-...because-..." Alex found himself beginning to stutter. He tried as fast as he could to grope for the right words to complete the sentence he started. At the moment he developed the perfect continuation of the sentence, Marty finished his friend's statement by saying, "Because you don't want Gia to think you're not who she thinks you are?"

That really caught Alex off guard. It was incredibly offensive in his book. To think that Marty would make him worry about his reputation for a reason that he would take seriously. He began to ponder about what he said, though. What would Gia think if she heard that? What would she say? What would she do? There were a ton of possibilities popping up in his head, and they were all making him terrified- there was a good explanation for it, though.

Gia was Alex's confident trapeze partner. She was a lovely jaguar who was one of the fifteen original circus animals who had been with the circus as long as she could remember. Alex first saw her when he and his companions were trying desperately to get on board the train since animal control was on their tail. He made up his story about being a famous trapeze artist which wowed Gia, since it was always her dream to perform trapeze- Gia's circus act was to perform simplistic cat tricks like sitting, standing, and rolling over, which bored her for a long time. During their first rehearsal, Alex taught her as much as he could while teaching himself how to do trapeze- it was especially amazing how Gia could do everything he do more perfectly. It was also during their first rehearsal when they both found themselves developing a special connection between one another. After he and his pals joined the circus permanently, Alex grew more emotions towards Gia, and- without a doubt -she was also growing strong feelings towards him. They felt as if they were becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. Of course, it was kept a secret from everyone else- at least that was what Alex thought until now.

"Now, Marty," said Gloria; "you shouldn't be saying such things. The last thing you want to do is hurt their relationship."

"Guys, come on," said Alex; "Gia and I are just friends."

"Mm hm," Marty vocalized, obviously aware that his friend was lying. "You and Gia are definitely best buds."

Alex sighed. "Marty," he said; "just because Gia and I are trapeze partners and practically do everything together doesn't mean we are really boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Actually," observed Melman; "under the right circumstances, you and Gia are one hundred percent in love."

"Don't tell me you and Gloria are taking his side!" Alex argued.

"Calm down, Alex," insisted Gloria; "nobody's taking sides here."

"But you guys are insisting that Gia and I are actually dating!" Alex yelled.

In a fit of irritation, he threw his arms in the air, admitted a sound that resembled a roar, and leaned back deeply into the hide-a-bed as he sulked. Marty, Melman, and Gloria looked at their friend with facial expressions that read "there is no need to be that mad about it". They were aware that sometimes Alex could be a bit oversensitive about certain things, and just the distinct idea of having the possibilities that he and a jaguar of severe attractiveness were dating was enough to suspect that this was now one of those moments.

Marty, Gloria, and Melman knew that Gia certainly was a sight for a male feline considering her physical form and other characteristics. Her body had a notable shape that made her stand out from every lioness their lion pal had ever encountered. Marty could easily recall every single time where Alex would be seen staring at Gia- who would probably be a few yards away from him -in a trance that would only be broken be someone's voice. Whether she was standing or in some sort of pose, Alex would always be mesmerized by Gia's form. Marty would also get the urge to joke about this to the others; however, and thankfully, he did not breathe a word to any other animal in the entire circus.

Alex, finally adjusting his head so he could look at his trio of pals, sighed deeply and said, "Sorry about that guys. I guess I got way too defensive."

"That's alright, Alex," Melman replied. "We completely understand."

"Yeah, there's nothing to be ashamed of," Gloria added. "It's okay to have feelings for Gia. No one's going to judge you."

"All except Vitaly," said Alex. "He probably doesn't want me to do anything with Gia unless it has to be something he'll classify as important."

Marty, Melman, and Gloria were heavily aware of who Alex was talking about. Vitaly was not Gia's father, but he was close to a father figure. He was a tall, muscular Siberian Tiger who was not only the former leader of the circus animals, but also the original star of the circus. Since the beginning, his act consisted of him dousing himself in olive oil, running forward, and jumping through tiny rings as if he was flying. This would've carried on until the night he ordered the specific hoop to be lit aflame. It was, and Vitaly ended up in an enormous ball of fire. Though he did recover from the near-fatal accident, Vitaly was striped of his willingness to perform another stunt and he immediately lost everything, including his wife. However, Alex persuaded him to try once more with a different substance. It worked well, and Vitaly soon regained his confidence.

But in the months following their American Tour, Vitaly also got back his ways of being strict and making sure that everything in the circus was running smoothly. Alex- as well as some of the other animals -thought that the tiger was acting like a total ignoramus. Yet he was the leader before Alex, so he sort of had a few more privileges when compared to the current circus leader. If he was to hear- even if it was a rumor -that Alex was in a relationship with Gia, who was like his own daughter in his book, Vitaly would without a doubt go ballistic and tear the lion apart.

Gloria dismissed the thought and told Alex: "Perhaps if you talk to Vitaly, he'll understand. I mean, it's not like he's going to push you out of the picture."

"Maybe," replied Alex; "but I'm still not so sure what he'll say or do."

"Forget about his reaction," insisted Marty. "What you should be more focused on is the possibility that you and Gia may live happily ever after. And trust me, that day ain't gonna find itself without your help."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! Would I ever let my best friend down?"

Alex looked as if he was pondering about something. "Well, I think there-"

"Okay, forget what I said that," said Marty. "What's more important now is that you need to get out of this car, find Gia, and admit that you love her dearly!"

"What about Vitaly?" Alex inquired.

Marty rolled his eyes. "Tell him you would like to date her with his permission," he said. Then Marty pushed his friend off the hide-a-bed and Alex got up onto his own two feet. "Now get out there and do what must be done!"

"Alright!" said Alex in confidence. "I'll do it for Gia!"

Gloria and Melman started cheering as did Marty. Alex opened the boxcar doors and stepped back. He leaped off the wooden floor of the boxcar and landed on the grass-covered earth with a thud. As he stood up, Alex turned around. He thought he had heard some sort of sound that resembled a familiar voice crying out in terror, as he probably thought that he was to be crushed under the feet of a powerful lion. Even though there seemed to be no one behind him, Alex glanced down to see who it was. On the ground were a group consisting of four penguins. They were the penguins who were responsible for encouraging Marty to break out of the zoo in the first place, but Alex, Gloria, and Melman excepted them for their intelligence of sorts. They were also the head of the entire circus operation, controlling the finances, the advertisements, and everything else.

The leader of the penguins, who was brilliantly named Skipper, stared at Alex in anger as he snarled, "Nice fucking jump, you hippy frog!"

"No time for compliments, Skipper, but I have to-" Alex suddenly ceased talking and glared down at Skipper in shock. Marty poked his head out of the boxcar and looked at the penguin with the same facial expression as well.

Skipper looked at both of them in irritation. "WHAT?!" he demanded.

"By any chance you could repeat what you said?" Alex asked.

"Say what?" Skipper growled, obviously not wanting to chat with anyone.

"You know, the thing you said to Alex after he jumped," said Marty.

"I said 'Nice fucking jump, hippy frog'!" Skipper replied in an even more angrier tone.

Alex and Marty's eyes shot opened in surprise. "Skipper!" Marty gasped. "Did you literally say the F word?!"

"Maybe I did," Skipper answered as he turned to Marty. He pointed his flipper at the zebra and scowled, "Since when do you care if I say 'fuck'? You and everyone else don't give a flying fuck when I say something! If you ask me, that's total bullshit!"

Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria gasped in unison.

"NOW WHAT?!" Skipper roared.

"First you said the F word, and now you're saying the S word!" Melman exclaimed

Gloria put her hands on her immense hips. "Just what the heck is wrong with you?!" she questioned.

"None of your business, sister!" Skipper shouted.

"Hold on a second, Skipper," said Alex calmly. "What's making you go out of your usual character all of a sudden?"

The shortest of the penguins, who went by the name of Private, approached Alex and replied, "We do apologize for Skipper's foul mouth, but he's been under a lot of pressure lately."

"From what?" Alex inquired.

Kowalski, the tallest penguin and the most intelligent, stepped forward with his explanation. "Most likely handling the money and the announcements of our shows, as well as keeping everyone in this circus in order," he told Alex.

"Oh," Alex, Gloria, Marty, and Melman said simultaneously.

Skipper once again snarled. This time, he said, "So now you understand? After all of those times of doing all the hard work, you finally recognize the total hell my boys and I have been going through?!"

Kowalski waddled over to the fuming Skipper. "Sir, please calm down," he advised. "We both know that yelling and shouting will only make it worse."

"Then what do you suggest?!" Skipper hollered.

Private strolled up to Skipper and said, "Perhaps if you take deep breaths and think happy thoughts, all of your bad thoughts will go away."

He was met with an angry glare from Skipper who shouted, "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!"

Private stumbled to his right side just be the deafening roar of Skipper's voice. He fell to the ground and made a sound that symbolized his agony from his leader's vocal affliction. The fourth penguins, who stood off to the side observing everything occurring, at last approached the unhinged penguin. He did not speak a word to Skipper, but he did stare at him with a face that read "Please stop acting like that".

Skipper took no notice of the other penguin's facial expression and rather glared back at him with infuriated eyes. "What are you staring at me for, Rico?!" he growled.

Rico did not respond with any words. Instead, he replied with the familiar gibberish that only Skipper, Kowalski, and Private could understand. This was met with even more scowling from Skipper, as it seemed there was no way for him to cool himself down. Melman, Gloria, and Marty went back inside the boxcar and shut the doors, leaving Alex outside with the penguins. He wasn't interested in being alone with the quartet of black-and-white birds that were unable to fly- especially with one of them using such vulgar vocabulary. Without any hesitation, Alex started walking away and told them: "Listen, I gotta talk to Gia and Vitaly about something. I'll talk to you guys later."

"Yeah, that's right!" Skipper barked. "Just walk away like nothing ever happened!"

Kowalski and Private were at Skipper's side once more.

"Skipper, you really ought to stop swearing," Kowalski advised.

"Yeah," Private added. "If you don't stop using curse words, everyone is going to think you're angry all the time."

Skipper pushed them both away with powerful shoves. As he stomped away, Skipper growled, "Maybe they'll understand if they had to do all of the fucking work we are stuck doing!"

Kowalski, Rico, and Private simply watched as Skipper grumbled to himself as he began his journey back to the circus tent. While watching him disappear into the distance, the trio couldn't help but worry about their leader. He definitely was out of character as Alex previously stated. They were concerned that if Skipper kept it up, the other animals will see him as a mean-spirited, profane jerk who only saw red. There had to be some way to heal him from his obscene attitude. The only was: how were they to do it?


	2. Chapter 2

AUTHOR'S NOTE: My apologies for pretty much abandoning this story. I've gotten carried away with writing other stories and my life beyond the world of internet literature that I've almost forgot this one. But let's not get too angry about it; let's continue this fanfic, shall we?

Alex searched the length of the circus train to try and find Vitaly and Gia. He started with the first boxcar behind the flat cars that were behind the steam locomotive, and made his way up until he was at the caboose. The animals who he and his friends were acquainted with- including white horses, tiny dogs of different breeds, and enormous elephants -were the only beings that he found in the boxcars besides his trio of life-long companions. That's when Alex figured that both Vitaly and Gia were back in the circus tent. The reason didn't matter to him; what mattered to him was the mission he was to complete.

It took less than five minutes for him- at least that's what he thought -to return to the gigantic tent. The lion strolled through the open entrance and made his way backstage. All around him were various crates and boxes full of equipment, tall paper screens to give performers a little privacy, and lots of other items that seemed necessary to help everyone prepare for the show. Alex didn't really think that some of the things that the circus had were absolutely important for them to have- most were nonsensical and others were slightly intriguing. He had seen some of the objects that the other circus animals defined as "must haves" and had once debated on why the penguins had bought them. It was highly possible that whoever desired certain items had badgered the penguins endlessly until they gave in. No wonder Skipper's in such a bad mood, Alex thought.

Suddenly, Alex felt his right foot knock into something and he instantly dropped face-first to the ground. The lion cried out as it all happened. Once he landed with a loud thud, Alex struggled slightly to get back up. "Son of a bitch!" he growled through clenched teeth.

It was very unlike him to use swear words, but he did use them whenever no one was around. He didn't want others to think of him as an obscene mouth-breather- Skipper was already providing a good example. Upon getting back up, Alex peered down at whatever object he just tripped on. It was nothing more but a simple jar of yellow paint. He was astounded that he didn't see it earlier. But that didn't matter now. He had to find Vitaly and Gia so he could speak to them. Alex tossed the small jar off to the side and continued on his way.

Eventually Alex passed through the area and came to the entrance of the center ring. Enormous bleachers that could seat thousands of people surrounded him. He wasn't exactly sure how tall they were or how many people each bleacher could seat. None of that really mattered at the moment, anyone could agree to that.

From his perspective, there was not a single living soul inside the circus tent. Thinking that he literally wasted too much time maundering through the tent, Alex was ready to head back outside to continue his search. When he turned around to walk the other way, the lion was startled by the sight of a sea-lion in front of him who said in an Italian accent, "Hi, Alice."

"Whoa!" Alex yelped as he jumped back.

As the lion caught his breath, the sea-lion had a look of slight guilt on his face. "Oh dear, did I scare you?" he inquired quite nervously.

"No, I wouldn't say you 'scared' me," Alex responded. "I would say you more likely made me- you know -jump out of my skin."

"So, I did scare you," said the sea-lion.

"Alright, you did," Alex replied admittingly. "It was good, though."

From what Alex could tell, the sea-lion was starting to feel a lot better. The lion smiled. It seemed to be almost a guaranteed certainty that no matter what ever happens, the sea-lion would always find a way to regain his cheerful manner.

The sea-lion- who was known in the circus as Stefano -was another life-long member in the circus profession. That was a fact anyone could easily deduce, judging by the enthusiasm in his voice and behavior, and the circus frill he wore, which was white with stripes of red and green- the colors of the Italian flag. Just like how Alex and Gia were partners for one of the show's most spectacular acts, Stefano and Marty were the same, only their act was greatly different- they were animal cannon-balls. Much like the human cannon-ball, they would launch themselves from a cannon and perform aerial stunts before landing safely in a net. Such a dangerous stunt to be performed by animals, who would always take all of the right safety precautions before they did anything, was one of the many reasons why their circus was a tremendous success.

Meeting Stefano at the current moment was good for Alex because, since the sea-lion was indeed one of the original performers of the circus before it was remodeled, he was obviously a dear friend of both Vitaly and Gia. Odds are that he was with the tiger and jaguar both he entered the center ring for whatever reason. If that was true, Alex did not want to miss the opportunity to ask.

He looked down at Stefano and inquired, "Say, um, by any chance do you know where I can find Vitaly or Gia? I kinda need to speak with them about...well, something important."

Stefano let out a short gasp, as if he was excited. "What a coincidence!" he exclaimed. "I was with Vitaly and Gia just a moment ago."

Alex's spirits perked up. "You were?" he asked.

"Si!" replied Stefano. "We were walking around and talking about our past shows in our tours, and I brought up that we had a map of the country, so I was going to go get it. I just can't remember where it is."

"Well, where did you last have it?" Alex asked.

Stefano pondered for a moment. "I can't be sure, Alice," he said. "I thought I had it in the caboose, but it wasn't there. So, chances are, it's somewhere here in the tent."

"Want me to help out?"

"Sure! Let's go!"

Alex left the center ring to head backstage with Stefano leading the way. He was really hasty, though- Alex did not want anything to stumble into his path just like that jar of paint, and yet this happened. But the lion had the correct amount of knowledge to understand that allowing his inner emotions about being disturbed at such a moment as this would be critical. How would someone react to behavior like that? How would someone like Stefano even respond? That was a mystery anyone could throw aside.

Once they were back in the backstage area of the circus tent, Alex and Stefano began their search for the map of the country. It was quite a difficult hunt considering the fact that every box and crate in the area was stuffed with nothing but meaningless junk- sure, there were some things that were crucial for a portion of the circus acts, but, for the most part, all of the items stored backstage were simply valueless. With all of the clutter all over the place, it made the search for the map even more tough than it should've been.

Alex was busy with a few boxes filled with nonsensical objects like materials for arts and crafts and the random coffee mugs with various designs painted on them. He hated digging through it all alike every other person, and something like this was sure to leave him with a terrible ache in his back. Once in a while, the lion would heave a sigh and throw the items aside in irritation. He didn't care of anything broke or not- he just wanted to help Stefano with his problem as fast as possible and find Vitaly and Gia so he could finally accomplish his mission.

Just as he had placed all of the items back in their respective boxes and crates, Alex jumped from the commotion behind him. A few moments ago, Stefano was doing his part in the hunt for the map of the country just like Alex. Suddenly, the sea-lion yelped loudly along with the sounds of several large objects falling onto the ground with thunderous thuds. Alex immediately turned around and gasped. Earlier, there was a trio of towers made of boxes and crates stacked on top of one another. Now the three towers had collapsed, right on top of Stefano!

"STEFANO!" Alex cried as he rushed over to the scene. He cleared away the heavy boxes and crates to the best of his abilities, but it seemed like he wasn't getting close to the buried sea-lion.

"Stefano!" Alex shouted again, hoping to get some sort of response. "Hey, Stefano, can you hear me?!"

A cry of "Si!" was slightly muffled by the boxes and crates that were still trapping the sea-lion. Luckily, Alex heard it and moved two more crates off to the side with great strength. At last, Stefano was free.

"Grazie, Alice!" Stefano said before kissing Alex on the cheek.

Instantly after Stefano hopped off of him, Alex wiped away Stefano's kiss as he cringed. "Do you seriously have to do that every time I save you from something?" he inquired, exasperation was clear in his voice.

"I'm sorry, Alice," Stefano replied. "I just got excited- that's all."

Don't you always? Alex thought.

Alex was thankful that he could think before speaking. Whenever he found himself in one of those anger-enducing situations, he struggled to control the fury within him. Sometimes it would escape him but mostly it would remain where it was. When anger allowed itself to be released, the situation Alex was in would become something worse for him by the reactions of whoever he was interacting with. Thankfully, this was not one of those moments when pure rage could break free from the lion and there would be further trouble for him.

"Okay then," said Alex. "Did you see the map by any chance?"

"No, I did not," replied Stefano. "I swear, I thought I put it in a box sometime ago, and now it's gone! What is going on here?"

"Don't ask me. I don't do much of the box and crate stuff. Maybe someone took care of storing the map for you."

"No, that is not what happened, Alice. From what I can remember, Vitaly, Gia, and I were marking all of the states and cities we last performed so we can tally up all of our past destinations. After we marking the last city, we decided to take a break and I placed the map in a box with some other papers and left it there. Someone must've moved it!"

"Why not ask the others if they happened to see a map of America inside a box a while back?"

"Perhaps I could, but who would I ask? One of the penguins? And which one? If I do find one of the penguins, it'll probably be the one who speaks like a total imbecile!"

Alex raised an eyebrow. "You mean Skipper?" he asked.

"Si, that's the one!" Stefano replied. "Just what he says is stupid! No matter where he is or who he's talking to, he's always saying something like 'I don't give a shit' or 'shut the fuck up'! I've heard those words before, I just don't know what they mean!"

"Trust me," said Alex; "it's best if you don't go searching for it online. What Skipper's saying is not for the simple-minded."

Stefano shrugged but he had a look on his face that told Alex that he clearly understood that the words "shit" and "fuck" were not appropriate for the vocabulary of an animal of his standards- the words were inappropriate since they were first said. No one was quite sure when those certain words were created; nevertheless, the words classified as "vulgar" would always find a way to enter someone's diction, whether to release their anger or appear to others as "hardcore".

Alex and Stefano were about to continue searching for the map of America when they heard the sounds of a large circus animal walking into the backstage area. They both turned their heads in the direction of the approaching animal to see Vitaly sauntering towards them. "Stefano, what's taking so long to find one map?" he asked the sea-lion in his gruff Russian accent.

"I can't find it, Vitaly," Stefano replied. "Alice is kind enough to help me, but, still, it's nowhere to be seen."

"Strange," said Vitaly. "You had it in one place and now it's somewhere else. Perhaps one of those penguins know where it is. I just don't want to be the guy who asks them."

"We all can understand that," said Alex, agreeing with the mighty tiger who nodded in response.

Alex was relieved that Vitaly was in a much more likable mood than the everyday bearish attitude he always had- at least that's what the lion always thought since his first encounter with Vitaly. It was still unknown to him but, since the circus' refurbishment, the tiger had loosened some amount of his strictness and became a bit more of a great companion than an unlikable authoritarian. He did keep a few of his old characteristics; nevertheless, Vitaly had changed his demeanor into something everyone could agree with.

It was also reassuring for Alex that Vitaly didn't have some sort of sharp weapon with him. No one knew precisely why but, whether to protect his fellow performers or for the sake of his appearance, the muscular tiger always carried a handheld weapon like a battle-axe or a javelin, and he always had a look on his face that warned everyone present that any wrong action would result in him using it by any means necessary.

Aside from those facts about the tiger, Alex felt more comfortable around Vitaly than he used to- as a matter of fact, so did Marty, Gloria, and Melman. He wasn't quite sure about the other circus animals but finding that out was another activity for another day.

Seeing his opportunity right in front of him, Alex rushed up to Vitaly. "Hey, um, Vitaly, can I talk to you for a bit?" he asked.

"Sure," Vitaly replied. "About what?"

"Well, it's...it's kind of important," said Alex, his fear of what the tiger might say or act when he would tell him about his love for Gia was making him stutter.

"How important?" asked Vitaly.

"Really important," Alex replied.

Alex tried his best not to let Vitaly see his anxiety. But the tiger had one eyebrow raised, clearly signifying that he was becoming suspicious- that's what Alex thought upon seeing the tiger's expression. This caused the lion's level of fear to rise as he forced his mouth to curl into a smile. It would've been believable if Alex had not stretched the ends of his mouth out too much, which obviously gave away his inner anxiety.

Vitaly noticed it as soon as it made its presence known and asked, "You're scared of me, what for?"

"Me? Scared of you?" Alex exclaimed nervously. "Why would you ever say that?"

"Because you are for some reason," Vitaly replied flatly.

Alex tried to think of another thing to say but his mind went blank. He sighed and decided to tell Vitaly about his feelings towards Gia. He summoned all of his mental strength and said, "Perhaps I am acting a bit stranger than usual, but that's because of something that's been in my mind for the past few days."

Vitaly nodded. "What might that be?" he inquired.

"Well, it's..." Alex found himself on the brink of stuttering once again. "It's quite...really...it's complicated, that's all I can say."

"Mm hm," said Vitaly who was grinning at Alex like he actually read his mind. "Complicated as in you're in love with someone?"

Alex's eyes expanded and he felt a sharp pang of fear in his heart, almost as if it was to stop beating from the shock. "How did you know that?!" he blurted out.

Realizing what had come out of his mouth, Alex tried to cover it up. "I mean, well...it...it's not what you think! I...it's just-"

Vitaly placed a paw on Alex's shoulder, causing him to stop babbling. The lion gazed up at the tiger in front of him like a child staring up at an adult in fear of getting scolded. But Vitaly was still grinning. "You can't fool me," he said. "I know all too well what's going on."

Just the way Vitaly said his statement made Alex calm down a little, but not enough to make him completely relaxed. He still felt scared by what could happen next. "You do?" Alex asked nervously.

"Yes," Vitaly replied with a nod; "and believe me, I expected this would come sooner or later."

"You did?" Alex inquired, shaking a little from the fear building up inside.

Vitaly wrapped arm around Alex's back as he guided him through the backstage area. "Listen to me, I know it's hard for you to believe that I am good at heart, but in truth, I am," he said in a benevolent tone of voice; a tone of voice that Alex had never heard before. "I'm sure that you and your friends see me as a strict tiger and that this is entirely shocking; but I'm also sure that you'll get use to it."

"Okay," Alex responded.

"The reason I used to act aggressive around you is because I often saw you and your friends as troublemakers, like you were brought here to mess everything up," Vitaly continued. "But that's all past history. You came and brought our circus back to life. We're all ever so grateful for you and your friends."

"That's really nice of you to say it, big guy," said Alex.

"But, I will admit one thing," Vitaly said in a tone that had to be in-between kindness and displeasure; "I do not like this penguin's vulgar streak."

"Yeah, we're all shocked by Skipper's change in character," Alex replied.

"Does he even know what he's going on about?"

"All I know is that he's stressed out from all of the finances and the promoting, so that should give us all a few hints."

"That actually explains everything. Ever since yesterday, that penguin has been running all over the place, yelling at everyone at completely random things; and just to make things more abnormal, he has added every curse word imaginable in his mediocre complaints."

"Every curse word? Does that include words both racist and hurtful?"

"No, thankfully. He's mostly saying 'fuck', 'shit', 'blow me', words like that."

Using dirty words was bad enough, but if Skipper had actually started saying certain words that described certain groups of people in a negative way, the future consequences would be more severe than simply saying "go fuck yourself" to a random person. Alex began visualizing what could happen to Skipper if he did say any ethnic slurs. In his vision, the penguin was first harassed, then tackled, then beaten, and finally thrown into a small cage labeled "foul-mouthed asshole".

Alex shook his head to clear away his ridiculous yet realistic vision. "Have you thought of anything to try and get him to stop cursing?" he asked Vitaly.

"Nyet," Vitaly sighed. "Even if I did, how would I pull it off? It would probably make it worse."

"Yeah, it would," said Alex.

From behind, Stefano exclaimed, "I found it! I found the map of America!"

Alex and Vitaly turned to face the sea-lion. "That's good, Stefano," Vitaly replied. "Why don't you find Gia and show it to her? She'll be happy you found it."

"Right!" Stefano chirped, and he waddled away to look for the jaguar.

Once Stefano was out of eye sight, Vitaly looked at Alex and said, "We almost lost our train of thought for a second."

Alex looked at Vitaly and replied, "Yeah, we sort of did- only briefly."

"So," Vitaly began; "are you going to tell me about your love for Gia?"

Instantly, the lion's tail, ears, and face dropped at the same time. His heart starting pounding against his chest once again and he lost the use of his voice. When he did seconds later, Alex was able to stutter, "How...how...how do you know that?"

Vitaly laughed since Alex sounded like a malfunctioning robot. "I have my ways, lion," he said coolly.

"Who told you?" Alex demanded. "Was it Marty? Was it King Julien?"

"No one told me," Vitaly answered, cool as ever. "I've been watching you and Gia for the past few months. Apparently, you both are strongly attached to each other. No matter where you two are, you're always seen together; almost unbreakable."

Alex was at a lost for words. All along, the one animal he thought would stand in the way of enjoying a thriving relationship with his lovely trapeze partner was actually aware of their romance and had accepted it. For the entire time he was silent, Alex felt like his was the biggest idiot on the face of the Earth.

"From a love doctor's point of view," Vitaly continued; "it's almost like you and Gia are dating. But, tell me honestly, why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

A dumbfounded Alex replied with: "I was afraid you would disapprove and threaten me with a dagger."

Vitaly shook his head and said, "You know how to think big in some situations, don't you?"

Alex shrugged.

Vitaly thought that was his only response but Alex spoke up. "I just thought that it would be difficult to tell you about it because you're sort of a father to Gia."

"Yes; I've heard a lot of people say that long ago," said Vitaly. "Gia was nothing more than a tiny, endearing cub when she was brought to our circus. She had no mother or father to give her love and attention, so Stefano and I did most of the work."

"You mean Stefano was kind of like Gia's mother?" Alex asked with a funny grin.

Vitaly held back his laughter and replied with a chuckle: "Nyet, a kind woman from Austria was Gia's mother figure- mostly with the feeding and bathing. Stefano was more like her brother."

"I can definitely agree with that," said Alex.

Vitaly walked up to Alex and wrapped an arm around him once more. "I might have told you this once," he began; "but I'll say it again for the hell of it! When you first joined our circus, I regarded you as unwanted pests. But then you revived the entire show and helped me gain my confidence in the business again, and my thoughts about you changed in an instant. Sure, there were some ups and downs with you and your friends, but nothing can change that now- you've saved us from an unknown fate, and we are ever so grateful for your ideas that have brought us to our American Tour."

Alex smiled. "I'm not sure if I told you this," he said; "but it was no problem at all- my friends and I are proud to have brought you so much joy in doing what you do best."

"Speaking of which," said Vitaly; "I think you can bring Gia a lot more joy if you do something romantic with her."

"I'll think about that," replied Alex. "I'm gonna go find her and tell her how much she means to me. Perhaps when we come to a nice town or city with something special for couples, I'll see what I can do. And don't worry, I'll make sure that Gia is both safe and happy."

Alex's face suddenly dropped when he saw that Vitaly was now staring at him with a frown and narrowed eyes that symbolized suspicion. "You better be honestly, lion," he warned him in a deep voice. "Otherwise your neck kisses the blade of my axe."

Alex gulped as fear had a grip on him.

Vitaly then grinned and laughed aloud. "You always fall for it!" he cackled.

Alex rolled his eyes and chuckled, obviously not amusement.

Vitaly started to stroll to another part of the tent. Before he left, the tiger patted the lion's back and said, "Good luck, comrade!"

"Thanks a bunch!" Alex replied, and he sauntered away.

Now that he had learned that Vitaly was well aware of his love for Gia, Alex quickly regained confidence in completing his mission. He was certain that once he got his emotions out, the bond between him and his beautiful trapeze partner would become stronger than it was the first time they met. He wasn't quite sure what would happen if his confession of love was to be rejected, but that didn't matter- Alex wanted Gia to know how much he loved her.

After walking through the center ring, Alex's ears caught the sound of someone humming- someone both female and easily recognized. The tone of the murmured song filled the lion's mind and possessed him, guiding him to the source of the enchanting humming.

Alex turned a corner and found himself at the main exit and entrance of the circus tent, and there was Gia. The jaguar was standing outside with her arms crossed. She was still humming her tune as she waited for rehearsals to start again. By looking closely, anyone could notice that Gia was swaying to her song. It wasn't her entire body, just her bottom portion.

Alex definitely noticed that. He beamed at the sight of Gia's body movements. But he forced himself to snap out of it when he sensed excitement in his lower region- not the same excitement someone would experience like receiving a marvelous surprise on their birthday, but sexually excitement. It was watching Gia's rear end swaying from side to side that was arousing him.

Alex knew that only one thing could save him from an embarrassing body reaction: words. He stepped forward and said, "Hey, Gia."

Gia stopped humming and turned her head to her right side. A hazel eye spotted him and she replied in her enchanting Italian accent: "Oh, hi, Alex."

"What are you doing?" Alex asked.

"I'm just waiting to get back to doing trapeze," Gia responded, fully turned to be in front of her partner.

"That's nice," said Alex. "Look, I wanted to tell you something."

"What's that?"

"Well, it's...it's something that's been on my mind for a while."

Gia began walking back into the tent. "I see," she said. "What might that be?"

Alex thought he had prepped himself for this moment, but it seemed that he had forgotten what was right to say. All he knew was that he was to confess his love for her in front of her. Nevertheless, he decided to do his best and hopefully not mess it all up.

Alex cleared his throat. "Well, you might've known that we have been together a lot," he began. "Vitaly himself said that we're almost unbreakable."

Gia smiled as she made her way to a dresser with a mirror. "I've noticed that, too, Alex," she said. "We are indeed unbreakable."

"And I was talking to him earlier," Alex continued; "and he also told me that he was cool about us being together."

"Really?" Gia inquired. "He certainly has changed."

Gia rested her arms on the dresser. To ease comfort, she stepped back until her legs were able to handle the alteration in weight.

Now Gia was in a pose that had Alex in a trance. Because she was bent over slightly, her rear end was close to him, and the way her tail was curled, the lion felt the erotic sensation return. To avoid it from getting stronger, Alex quickly moved to the dresser alongside Gia. "Anyways," he said; "about what I was about to ask, I wanted you to know that...you know, that-"

"That you love me?" Gia inquired in her relaxed tone of voice.

This caught Alex extremely off-guard. He stuttered, "Uh...uh...well, um..." Alex realized that talking was the key out of panic. He calmed down and said, "Yes. Gia, I love you with all of my heart."

Gia giggled and straightened herself back up. Looking into Alex's blue eyes, she replied, "And I love you just the same, Alex."

Gia walked up to Alex and hugged him tightly. Alex wrapped his arms around Gia and squeezed her gently. They've hugged many times before, but this was unlike the ones in the past. Instead of being the result of success, this hug was the result of love confirmed and accepted. It was quickly made official, but neither of them cared- they were both joyful to be with each other in such a wonderful moment in their lives.

After a minute of being in a long-lasting hug, Alex and Gia looked into each other's eyes. Both of them beamed as they continued to live in their moment of bliss. To them both, looking into the eyes of their companion was like gazing into a beautiful painting of an evening landscape, and they were a part of it.

Eventually, Gia broke the silence with words. "You were afraid of Vitaly's response so you kept quietly, weren't you?" she asked.

"Yeah, I was a big coward," Alex replied. "I never got the courage to speak up and say anything. That's why I've waited so long to tell you."

"Did it honestly have to be over a year for you to confess your love for me?" Gia questioned.

Alex nodded. "Like I said, I was scared for my life," he said. "But that's all in the past now. Vitaly understands that we are in love and that's what it's going to be- for better or for worse."

"Does anyone else know about us?"

"Well, to be honest, Marty, Melman, and Gloria talked me into telling you how much you meant to me and I couldn't deny it. So, I decided it was time to let me feelings out."

"I think that you've been brave talking to Vitaly about your feelings."

"Yeah, I can be brave whenever its possible."

"You may not have strong muscles, but you definitely have a strong heart."

"Did Marty tell you that?"

"I heard him mention something about you and an old woman, but he never told it to me directly. But we shouldn't get worried about that, should we?"

"Absolutely not."

Just then, Skipper voice erupted from far behind them. "Alright, break time is over! Everyone, get your asses back to rehearsals! And don't give me any of your whiny bullshit! Otherwise, I'll blow your fucking head off!"

Alex and Gia let go of each other and groaned. "With what?" Gia snorted. "He doesn't have a gun! What's he gonna use? The cannon?"

"We shouldn't think about that," said Alex. "Skipper's in a bad mood."

"It's a really bad one," said Gia. "He's had it for a few days now."

Alex sighed deeply. "Has he been getting on your nerves, too?" he asked.

"That penguin's getting on everybody's nerves!" Gia roared. "All day long, it's "fuck you" to one guy and "don't be full of shit" to the other! What is that bird's issue!"

"He's just stressed out from managing our budget and commercials," Alex explained. "I don't fully understand why he's gone full blow insane."

"Well, he needs to get help!" Gia replied. "If he doesn't, I'll find a way to persuade him!"

Alex became immensely worried about Gia's statement. "What would you do?" he inquired nervously. "Would it be something anyone else would do?"

"Does a foot in the ass work?" Gia asked.

"No," Alex responded.

"It doesn't matter," Gia said. "I'm gonna do it anyway!"

Gia started to stomp away but Alex rushed up to her and grabbed her arm. "Gia, stop and think about this," he told her. "Skipper's going through a lot and he's obviously struggling to free himself from it all; but do you really think that's going to help him?"

"It'll show him how angry we are about it!" Gia growled.

"Look," Alex began; "I know that we're all disgusted and offended by Skipper's use of foul language, but we shouldn't be threatening him with something large up his butt. I'm pretty sure if we play our cards right, we can get him the proper help he needs and we can carry on with our lives. How does that sound?"

Gia stared at Alex angrily for a few seconds before sighing. "That sounds a whole lot better," she said. "The sooner he gets better, we'll all get better."

Alex smiled and guided Gia towards the trapeze swings. "C'mon, let's get back to rehearsals," he said. "We've got a big performance ahead of us."


	3. Chapter 3

Nighttime arrived within hours and the starting time of the performance was drawing near. The field was full of excitement and wonder. The circus tent was lit it inside and out, balloons of all different colors, shapes and sizes seemed to float above the big top, and searchlights slowly waved their beams of light into the dark sky. People crowded outside the ticket booth, where adults slid their money to the clown behind the glass (who in reality was Mason and Phil in a goofy clown costume) and were given a precise number of admission tickets. Those who got their tickets entered the tent and took their seats in the bleachers, waiting patiently for the show to begin.

As the bleachers continued to be filled with people, adults and children alike, Gloria poked her head out from one of the curtains that served as an entrance and exit for the circus animals. "Wow!" she gasped. "It looks like we've got a full house tonight!"

Vitaly walked over and peered out into the center ring. "Indeed so," he said.

Vitaly strolled backstage and clapped his paws. "Alright, everyone, this is it!" he announced. "Our final show before our winter break begins in a few minutes."

"We have precisely seven minutes before the show goes on," Private informed everyone; "so make sure you give everyone the greatest show they'll ever see!"

The circus animals voiced their enthusiasm for the upcoming performance. They cheered and jumped up and down in great excitement.

Gloria walked over to Melman, who was her partner in their tightrope act, and Marty who was waiting for Stefano to finish tightening the strap of his helmet. "You boys ready for tonight's show?" she asked in exhilaration.

"Definitely!" Melman replied eagerly.

"Who isn't excited for the show?" Marty asked in the same tone of eagerness. "We're gonna blow this crowd away!"

"Far away to Canada!" Stefano chirped, even when he didn't know what he was saying.

The sea-lion's unfunny comment was ignored as the other animals made last-minute preparations for the show.

Gloria took a quick trip to one of the large fun house mirrors to see if she was show-ready. Her to-to was on just right and her paint-work was perfect, the stripes and shapes were in the right shade and design. Gloria was one of the circus animals who performed while wearing a striking paint design. Her partner Melman had his spots painted blue and Marty's stripes were a shade of green. It was one of the many reasons that loved performing.

Melman strolled over to Gloria and said, "I certainly can't get over how amazing we look in paint."

Gloria chuckled and looked at her partner. "You certainly have a way with words, Melman," she replied. "Even when you try to sound romantic, it works."

Melman felt a little embarrassed by his comment; he found it to be a bit stupid. But considering that Gloria had accepted it kindly, he felt better instantly.

Marty joined them in looking at their reflections in the mirror. "Don't you think we've always looked the same since our first performance?" he inquired Melman.

"Yeah," Melman replied; "but don't you think we look incredible with different colors?"

"Yeah, we do," said Marty; "even when you must've said that back in London."

Stefano snuck his way in front of them and popped up. "What are we looking at?" he asked.

"We're just admiring our body-paint designs," Marty told his sea-lion partner. "Nothing special."

"You don't think your painted outfits are special?" Stefano questioned with a bit of concern.

"No, of course not," Marty responded. "We all like our body-paint. Scratch that- we love our body-paint! Why would think that we would hate them?"

"I don't know, really," said Stefano. "Perhaps I misunderstood something and I can't remember it."

"Don't worry about it now," said Marty. "Just be ready to fly out of the cannon on cue."

"Absolutely!" Stefano chirped and he ran off to prepare himself for the act he and Marty would perform.

Marty, Melman, and Gloria walked away from the mirror but they continued to talk to each other.

"Did anyone say where we'll be staying over the winter?" Marty inquired his pals.

"Nobody told me anything," Melman told the zebra.

"I think I heard King Julien rambling on about a 'jumbo animal-only resort'," said Gloria. "I'm not sure what he was saying but I got a feeling that it's probably an indoor zoo."

Marty and Melman groaned.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Marty whined. "We didn't go to one last winter! Why do have to go to one this time?"

"Marty's right," said Melman. "We don't need to be in zoo habitats anymore. We're part of the most successful traveling shows in history! I will not allow this to happen!"

"It's probably too late, Melman," Gloria sighed. "Skipper probably made the arrangement weeks ago, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it!"

Marty gasped while Melman's jaw dropped. "Whoa, don't tell me you're gonna be swearing now!" cried the zebra.

"I'm sorry but I just can't help it!" Gloria snapped. "Skipper's driving everyone nuts and he's not even caring if he offends anyone or not!"

"Yeah, he's getting on everyone's nerves," said Marty. "I just don't understand why he's doing this, but he's gotta figure out how to stop himself from being such a douchebag."

Marty's eyes grew to the shape of saucers as did Melman's.

"Oh no, not you too!" Melman cried.

"Just forget it, Melman!" Gloria snarled. "Everyone's gonna swear once in their lifetime!"

"Well, it's just shocking to me that we would actually use curse words," Melman told his hippo partner.

"Just do what Gloria says and don't worry about it," said Marty. "We all know that when Skipper finally decides to seek a therapist of some kind and gets his attitude adjusted to an agreeable angle, then everything will be back to normal."

Everything quieted down after that. The trio was surprised and thankful that none of the other animals tried to jump in and break up the fight. If one of them did, things would have gotten ugly; perhaps to the point where the show would have to be cancelled, and no one wanted that to happen, not before they went on winter break. They needed the money- true, they still had sixty-five thousand dollars in their pockets, but they knew in their hearts that the show had to go on.

Private walked up to them and inquired, "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, we were just concerned about Skipper," Melman responded.

"Everyone is," said Private. "I've talked to Kowalski about the issue and he said he'll try to do a little research on how we can stop Skipper from swearing."

"Tell him to do it as quick as he can," Gloria told the tiny penguin. "That foul-mouthed penguin is getting on our nerves!"

"Will do," Private replied, and he waddled away.

Gloria went back to the mirror and began inspecting her paint-work. "I hope I'm not sweating," she grumbled. "The last thing I need is my body art getting ruined so quickly."

"Just relax," Marty told her. "The last thing we need is our show to come crashing down so quickly."

"That would be a disaster," Gloria replied.

"Just remember to calmly breathe and keep thinking happy thoughts," said Marty. "The more calm and happy we are, the more spectacular our show's gonna be."

"Speaking of spectacular, where's Alex and Gia?" Melman asked.

Marty and Gloria glanced around the backstage area but couldn't see Alex or Gia anyway.

"Maybe they're putting on their body-paint," Marty guessed.

"They wouldn't do so at the last-minute," Gloria objected. "They're both dedicated to performing their trapeze act. To say that is like saying they hate living here."

"You're right," said Marty. "Still though, the only time I've seen them both was when they were rehearsing. Hopefully they haven't gone off to...oh, here they come."

Melman and Gloria looked in Marty's direction to see Alex and Gia strolling towards them looking immensely cheerful. They both had various shades of pink body-paint on them, but their designs were different from each other. While Gia had all of her spots painted pink, Alex had some portions of his face and mane painted pink. Not one of Alex's friends ever thought that he would never do something that would affect his appearance, as they thought he would be ridiculed because of it, but, since they were now circus animals, Alex felt more comfortable to do so.

"Hey, guys," Alex said as he and Gia approached the trio.

"Hey, Alex; hey, Gia," Melman replied. "You both ready for tonight's show?"

"I'd be surprised if someone wasn't," said Gia.

"You're telling me!" Marty said cheerfully. "This is our last show before winter break. To think that someone here isn't happy about us getting another break is quite out of the ordinary."

Gia frowned and replied, "Well, unless you consider Skipper as a 'someone', then you'd be wrong."

Everyone around her groaned in agreement. The cheerfulness that had reappeared had now vanished once again.

"How could we forget?" Alex grunted. "But that's just great! For the next few months while we're temporarily out of work, we're all going to be stuck with him and his bad attitude!"

"That's the cabin fever no one ever wants to go through!" said Marty.

"Have you talked to one of the other penguins about this?" Gia asked.

"Private told us he and the others will look up ways to get him to calm down," Gloria responded. "Hopefully they'll find a computer as soon as possible."

"Where are they going to find a computer?" Alex inquired. "For that matter, how are they going to get a high-speed internet connection?"

"Hopefully there's a signal at this indoor zoo we'll all be staying at during winter," said Melman.

Alex glared at Melman. "Indoor zoo?" he asked in disbelief. "That's where we're staying over the winter? An indoor zoo?"

"Well that's what Gloria told us," Melman replied.

"And I heard it from King Julien," Gloria added.

"The childish lemur?" Gia asked. "Why would you believe someone who's always saying and doing crazy stuff?"

"Well, it's plausible that we're going to a place that's like a zoo," Alex began; "and it's also possible that it's going to be indoors because none of us like the bitter cold. So, chances are-"

Alex glanced down at Gia who was staring at him suspiciously. She knew that he was trying to tell her that it wasn't the place she was thinking about, and he obviously saw that she knew he was making a fool of himself.

Alex sighed and said, "Yeah, we're staying at an indoor zoo during winter."

"Wonderful," Gia groaned as she rolled her eyes.

Gia crossed her arms and her head drooped because of the intense anger raging inside.

"Now, don't get too angry, Gia," Alex said as he cautiously wrapped an arm around his jaguar partner. "We all know that it's going to be one hell of a winter we'll be having with Skipper, but you mustn't let anger dominate your thoughts. If you get angry while we're performing, something's gonna go wrong."

Gia didn't react when Alex wrapped his arm around her, but she did sigh when he advised her that being angry during a circus performance meant obvious trouble. While she was aware of what her lion partner had told her, she was still vexed that she and everyone else was going to spend an entire winter with an ill-tempered penguin who used curse words nonstop, no matter what the subject was or even if there was a subject to be talked about.

"Not to mention that we won't be in service again until next spring," Marty added. "Therefore, it's a good idea if we all found something to do that would be far away from Skipper- or, at least, something we can seclude him from."

"You sure that would be a good idea?" Melman inquired. "He could probably get more angry if we were to do something that involved us sneaking out of the place, whatever it is."

"Who said anything about sneaking out?" Marty questioned. "You think we would find ourselves on a new, life-threatening adventure that we don't need to go on?"

"No, that's not what I meant!" Melman objected. "All I'm saying is-"

"Okay, both of you, shut up!" Gloria demanded. "We're all trying to be excited for our final show of the year, and what are we doing instead? Making things worse!" Let's get serious, guys! Let's put on a show that this crowd has paid money for!"

After that, everyone who was in a non-circus mood agreed that their current feelings were not suitable for the upcoming event, which was about to start. They all wanted their audience to be in awe of their show. Even if their circus was all over the news when it was first performed in New York City, they still had one of the most popular and successful traveling shows of all time; and it would be a shame if something were to happen that would weaken their reputation, and cause their popularity and profits to slowly decline until they could no longer function as a business.

Alex noticed that Gia had morphed from being irate to being greatly animated. The sight of her mood alteration was enough to make him smile.

Just then, Vitaly called out to everyone: "Everyone, to your positions! The show starts in two minutes!"

"Well, this is it!" Gia told Alex enthusiastically. "You'd better head up to your spot above the center ring! I'll meet you up there in my spot- if you're fast enough!"

Alex chuckled while Gia laughed as she walked away at a fast pace.

Alex was about to take off for his position above the center ring but an unusual sight caught his attention. It was the way Gia's lower body moved as she walked. The way her rear appeared to shake was enough to revive the lion's sexual excitement he felt when he met up with Gia before rehearsals. He imagined himself alone with Gia in a fancy hotel bedroom. In his daydream, the jaguar appeared more attractive than she usually did- as a matter of fact, her behavior and actions made her greatly seductive.

Alex continued daydreaming about him and Gia when he suddenly heard her call out to him. "Alex!"

The lion snapped back into reality. He realized where he was and how much erotic euphoria he was feeling. He gasped and swiftly covered his lower region just in case there was someone staring at him in a suspicious or disgusted way. He began to think of other thoughts in hope that it would allow the sexual excitement would die down.

To his relief, Gia was the only other animal near him. She was looking at him while leaning against a stack of wooden boxes. The smirk on her face told Alex that she must've noticed him staring at her as if he was under a spell.

Alex began to panic. "Uh, Gia, you weren't...you didn't...happen to notice me..."

"I know you were staring at my ass," Gia said while smirking; much to Alex's surprise and relief, she wasn't mad at all.

"Maybe I was," Alex responded timidly; "but I couldn't help it!"

Gia, still smiling slyly, asked, "Alex, do you love me or my body?"

Alex was dumbfounded by Gia's accusation that he loved her body than her altogether and the way she said it. He didn't know how to respond at first, but he found the right words to reply to her question.

"Honestly, I'm in love with you both," Alex told Gia. "While it's true that I can't stop staring at you or your butt whenever I find myself staring at you or your butt, I also can't stop thinking of how impressive you are at being protective of your passion and the entire circus. The girl lions I've met in Africa were both beautiful and noble, but not one of them could outmatch your standards."

Alex was still afraid of what Gia would do next but she remained where she was and continued to stare at him and smirk.

A moment later, Gia said, "Considering of how nice your compliment was, and of course you're sorry for your behavior, I'll forgive you. Just don't let it overpower you; okay?"

Alex nodded and Gia hurried away to her position for the performance.

From somewhere far away, Private shouted, "One minute till curtain!"

Alex quickly dashed to his position above the center ring.

Vitaly was mentally preparing himself for his act, which was also the starting act of the show. He had previously doused himself in hair conditioner and was now waiting for the penguins to give Stefano the cue to waddle out and light the tiny hoop in the center of the performing area.

Stefano waited for the penguins to signal him to start the show. He held a single match in his flipper and made sure that he didn't lose it.

From where they were, the penguins could see that all the people in the bleachers were ecstatic to see the show that took the country by storm. While Private, Kowalski, and Rico were calm, Skipper appeared indignant. The three other penguins were aware that their leader was still hot under the collar from the pressure of managing the circus. They hoped that they would eventually find a cure for his vile anger, because if no one did and allowed it to worsen, the future of the circus would be effected in a very negative way.

"Somebody better not fuck this up!" Skipper grumbled in quietly as he could.

Even when he tried to keep his voice at a hoarse whisper, Kowalski, Private, and Rico heard him.

"Skipper, please calm down," Private said aloud. "We don't want things to get bad between us."

"Shut your beaks and keep an eye on the clock!" Skipper ordered. "If there's anybody in this God forsaken circus that I don't want to fuck things up, I don't want either of you to be that guy!"

Kowalski, Rico, and Private sighed angrily. Skipper's rage and bitterness was increasing hour by hour. They feared of how high his level of anger would reach before he would explode and cause a lot of trouble- much like how a ton of dynamite would cause a large portion of rock to crumble off a mountain side.

Kowalski glanced at an alarm clock they had nearby. "It's showtime!" he announced.

Private pressed a button on the walkie-talkie he had and said, "Alright, Stefano, you're on!"

Seconds later, the lights dimmed and Stefano ran out into the center ring. Upon seeing the sea-lion, the audience erupted in applause; several cheers and whistles were heard among the ovation.

Stefano made his way to the stand which held the tiny hoop. He then lit the match and carefully held it close to the hoop. It caught fire immediately. Stefano blew the lit match out and ran behind the curtains so Vitaly could make his grand entrance.

It took only five seconds for silence to engulf the crowd. Everyone held their breath. Several people, mostly teenagers, had their cell phones out and were recording the moment- after all, no one wanted to forget such a magical event as the Fur Power Circus.

Vitaly stepped out from behind the curtains. He carefully analyzed his objective standing yards away from him. Once he was sure that he could do it, the tiger prepared himself to run and, once he was ready, he dashed towards the hoop. As he sprinted, Vitaly did a few cartwheels before finally jumping forward and seemingly flew towards the hoop with one arm in front of him.

Vitaly appeared on the other side of the hoop untouched. The hair conditioner had done its work and he had avoided catching fire like he did many years ago. And just like every performance when he was a star and after his revival, the crowd cheered and applauded him for his short but incredible act.

Within moments, the entire show began. As the music blared, special effects, mostly lights, added an exhilarating sensation into the atmosphere. Every person in the bleachers was immediately amazed by how the props and other equipment moved. For the young children in the crowd, it was enough evidence to prove that magic was real.

The circus went on without a single problem. In fact, it was probably one of the best shows any of the animals did in the past few months. Gloria and Melman were having a lot of fun performing their tightrope act, and Marty and Stefano were having a blast with their cannon act (literally).

Eventually, it came time for Alex and Gia to perform their trapeze act. From their respective platforms, the lion and jaguar could see that everyone was ecstatic to see them in action. When the props were put in their proper places, they took a deep breath and then looked forward to face each other.

"Ready, Gia?" Alex called out to his partner.

"Always, Alex!" Gia responded.

With that, Alex and Gia dashed forward and dived off their platforms. They swiftly grabbed a trapeze bar and swung upwards.

The rest of their act went on just as they had done it since the start. Alex and Gia flipped and spun as they swung on trapeze bars, flew through large hoops, and bounced on floating trampolines. Below them, people watched in amazement, and the teenagers continued to film the event with the camera function on their cell phones, as the felines performed their trapeze act, which Alex and Gia had dubbed "Trapeze Americano".

When they finished their act, the audience erupted in the same ovation they had when the show had started, only louder and more exhilarated than before. Alex and Gia left the center ring and hurried backstage to recollect their newly made memory.

"Alex, that was the best trapeze we've ever done by far!" Gia cheered.

"I know!" Alex replied ecstatically. "What a way to wow everyone before our winter break!"

"Yeah," Gia said as the excitement in her voice dropped a little. "Too bad we have to wait until spring to do it again."

"Trust me, that sucks," Alex replied. "But, hey, at least we did our best tonight and we didn't disappoint anybody."

Gia nodded and gazed into Alex's blue eyes. "So, what do you think we're going to do all winter?" she inquired.

"That's a good question, Gia," Alex told her. "We're all gonna have to keep ourselves active and busy, and mostly away from Skipper. Hopefully the penguins will figure out how to calm him down."

"We're all praying for a miracle," said Gia.

For a brief moment the felines were slightly downhearted. Then Alex looked into Gia's hazel eyes with a warm smile on his face. "Look on the bright side," he said. "At least we'll have all our friends around."

"As well as each other," Gia added with a small giggle.

"Oh, that's a plus," Alex replied.

Alex and Gia shared a warm-hearted chuckle before they looked at each other passionately. A powerful force brought them closer to each other. They found themselves so close that their noses touched. Gia giggled again and Alex smiled lovingly.

Slowly, Alex and Gia lifted their heads up. Their noses were no longer touching. But soon, it was their lips that were connected together. All love they felt was at its greatest. Alex wasn't sure if Gia was sensing it herself, but he felt sexual excitement growing inside for the third time that day. While it was becoming a nuisance to him, he couldn't help but allow it to course through his body.

After thirty seconds, Alex and Gia opened their eyes to gaze once again into their partner's eyes. They continued to kiss romantically; both were absorbed in so much euphoria that they appeared to have shut out the world around them. Just like Vitaly had told Alex, he and Gia were both unbreakable.

Suddenly, Gia broke away from their kiss. Even when she acted calm, it was easy to make out that she was frantic. Though he was disappointed that the kiss ended abruptly, Alex was concerned about his partner. "Gia, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Um...it's, um...I," Gia faltered, obviously worried about what she was trying to tell Alex.

"Gia, tell me what's the matter," said Alex. "I can help you."

Alex calmly approached her but Gia staggered back in fear. She once again began to falter her words and Alex could see that tears were forming in her eyes.

"Gia, please, talk to me," Alex said much more concerned.

"I'm sorry, Alex," Gia whimpered. "I need to be alone."

Gia then ran out of the tent with her paws to her face. Alex called out to her to come back so they could talk but she ignored him. The bewildered lion watched as the melancholy jaguar dashed to one of the train's boxcars, opened the large sliding doors, climbed in, and slammed them shut. The sight, along with the sound of her crying, broke Alex's heart. "What did I do?" he asked himself.

Just then, Marty, Stefano, Gloria, Melman, and Vitaly entered the area.

"Hey, Alex, what's happening?" Marty asked.

"Gia and I kissed," Alex responded dispiritedly.

"Really?" Melman asked in a gasp. "You finally kissed her?"

"Alex, that's wonderful!" Gloria said delightedly. "I knew you could win her heart!"

Alex sadly nodded.

"See, Alex," Melman told his lion friend; "when you tell someone your feelings, things will go smoothly; like you telling Gia you love her."

"Gia must be so happy that you're both making it official!" said Marty.

"Yeah," Alex replied as his head drooped. "She's overjoyed."

Everyone began to sense the sadness Alex was feeling and the happiness they felt for their friend immediately drained away.

"What happened?" Gloria inquired.

"I don't know," said Alex. "One moment, she was happy that we were in love; and then, she's suddenly miserable. I tried to get her to tell me what's wrong but she just takes off crying. I don't know why she got so sad like that. I'm not sure what I did that made her so upset."

Marty wrapped an arm around Alex. "Don't worry, Al," he told him. "I'm sure that Gia will be calm again tomorrow. It might be hard for her to explain, but I'm sure she'll tell you."

While Marty, Gloria, and Melman were consoling Alex, Vitaly and Stefano were standing far away from them. Stefano was sad to see one of his friends heartbroken. He looked up at Vitaly who was staring at the group with a somber look on his face.

At one point, Vitaly let out a long sigh and muttered, "I should have told him earlier that this would happen. It's been years since, but that dreadful memory still hangs over her."

Stefano looked away from Vitaly and back to Alex and his friends. He knew all too well what the tiger was referring to. That was a moment in his life- more appropriately Gia's life -that was as dark as life could get. He never knew that something like it could happen, but it did, and it happened to the one animal he and Vitaly cared about, and now who Alex cared about.

Along with the unpredictable weather and Skipper's uncontrollable anger, it was going to be a long, horrible winter.


	4. Chapter 4

The Fur Power Circus once had to stop traveling and performing over the course of winter, which was the previous year. Even though they handled the last winter well, the circus animals weren't exactly sure how they were going to survive this one.

The animals would be fine doing stuff like playing games, watching movies, and singing songs to avoid boredom and to hopefully prevent the spread of cabin fever. However, their main concern was putting up with Skipper for the next few months. His constant use of swear words was affecting everyone in the circus. It was a mystery on how anyone could stand to be around him if he was so aggravating; but the circus animals wanted one thing to be done with him: find him a psychiatrist or therapist of some kind and have him treated immediately.

While anyone who would see Skipper's behavior would agree with the animals, the idea was still wishful thinking. Still, all the animals in the Fur Power Circus demanded that the penguin should be taken to a doctor to have a full analysis of his irritability. Kowalski and Private had repeatedly told everyone that, once they would be in possession of an internet connection of any kind, they would search the web looking for anger management techniques for the penguin to follow and hopefully let go of his awful swearing habit.

The day after their final performance of the year, the entire circus was packed up and the train left on its short journey to the indoor zoo where the animals would spend the winter in. While the penguins were operating the massive steam locomotive, the circus animals were relaxing in the boxcars. Kowalski, Private, and Rico were doing most of the work with keeping the train running smoothly; Skipper was sitting in a chair off to the side, grumbling to himself. The three other penguins didn't take any notice of their leader's attitude. They- just like everyone else -despised Skipper's nasty change in character and prayed that they would be able to use a computer and look up techniques to calm his ill-temper.

Several cars behind the locomotive, Alex was laying flat on a mattress while Marty, Melman, and Gloria were sitting in bean bag chairs. They were immensely bored despite the short time they were in the boxcar. With no board game, deck of cards, or even a few books in sight, the four animals had nothing to do but wait until the train arrived at the indoor zoo.

Eventually Marty couldn't stand the boredom he and his friends were enduring. He groaned loudly and cried, "I'M SO BORED!"

"Aren't we all?" Alex groaned as he continuously stared at the ceiling.

"Is there seriously nothing we can do to kill time?" Marty inquired.

"Marty, there's nothing in this car aside from the chairs and the mattress," Melman responded. "If you wanted to play a game or something, you should've looked for a board game or some cards before we packed up the circus."

Marty arched his head back and whined again.

"Marty, stop your whining," said Gloria. "That's not gonna help you at all."

"I know," Marty replied; "but I'm still bored!"

"Why don't you try and think of something to clear your mind of boredom," Melman suggested. "Perhaps you could try imagining yourself somewhere else; you know, like an amusement park, or maybe a country you want to visit, or even a world where you can do anything you want."

"Yeah, try doing that, Marty," said Alex. "Perhaps it'll help."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot," said Marty; he relaxed himself and closed his eyes.

For a while, it was incredibly silent, with the exception of the noise of the moving train. Gloria and Melman kept an eye on Marty to see if he really was daydreaming. The zebra did not make a sound; his eyes were shut and he was breathing regularly. If he was in his own imaginary world, Marty was doing a fantastic job.

Gloria and Melman then glanced at Alex. The lion was still lying on the mattress flat as a board. His blue eyes were still locked on the boxcar ceiling. The hippo and giraffe noticed that Alex appeared to lack any emotion on his face; they deciphered that based on the lion's mouth, which was in a straight line, and eyes, which were relaxed, motionless, and fixed on the ceiling.

"Hey, Alex, are you okay?" Melman inquired the lion.

"Yeah, Melman, I'm fine," Alex responded in the same dull, groaning voice he spoke with to Marty earlier.

"Are you sure?" Gloria asked. "You were really upset last night."

"I was," Alex sighed. He then- for the first time since the train began moving along the tracks -moved his head to look at Gloria and Melman. "I don't understand," the lion continued. "I did nothing wrong to Gia, but, just when things are as they should be, she runs off crying."

"Perhaps she had a sudden thought or flashback," Melman conjected. "It must have been something that left a dark stain in her memory and it found its way back into her mind again."

"Like what?" Gloria inquired. "You mean something like death or even abuse?"

"I hope it isn't abuse because that's a big problem and fear in any circus that has animals," Melman replied. "However, a serious event like the death of someone close to Gia would definitely cause her to suffer depression."

"Like who?" Alex asked. "Would it be someone who was Gia's brother or sister?"

Melman shook his head. "The dogs told me that Gia was an only cub," he said.

"So she must've thought of her parents," Gloria guessed.

"That might be it," said Alex. "It must've happened before she was a circus animal. Vitaly told me that, when Gia was a cub, she was looked after by an Austrian woman."

"If that's the reason why, it still raises a question," said Melman. "If it occurred years ago, why would it haunt her now and when she was with you, Alex?"

Alex sat up on the edge of the mattress. "I don't know everything about Gia before we came along! How do you expect me to know, Melman?!" he responded.

"It was just a guess!" said Melman. "No need to over-react!"

"How can I not over-react?!" Alex hollered. "First Skipper's on a roll with his colorful words and now Gia's getting depressed about something!"

After taking a few deep breaths, Alex flopped onto the mattress as if he was worn out. "And I don't know what to do about it," he sighed.

"Don't worry, Alex," said Gloria. "I'm sure that when we get to the indoor zoo and find a computer, we can look up how to help make Gia feel better."

"Are you sure?" Alex inquired.

"I'm positive," Gloria replied.

"I hope we can get a computer," said Marty who was now awake; "then we can play games and watch videos."

"We can," said Melman; "but we'll have to share the computer with everyone else- mostly the penguins."

"As long as they can take away Skipper's swearing habit, I'm a happy camper!" Marty replied.

"Me too!" said Gloria.

Alex didn't say anything. He was now sitting up straight once again, but he only peered at the wooden floor with his chin resting on his paws. He was just as sad as he was the previous night when Gia ran away from him with tears in her eyes. Even worse, he couldn't get the jaguar out of his mind. Alex loved Gia with all of his beating heart, and he couldn't live with himself knowing that the one animal close to his heart was in so much emotional pain.

Marty, Melman, and Gloria looked at Alex and felt bad for him. The lion had been through a lot of horrible events in his life, and what had happened last night was no exception. They were worried about Gia just as he was. Even though they thought of a plausible reason why she would have gotten so miserable, they had no clue at all if it was the actual cause of the incident. There were still a lot of facts that made their reason a bit illogical; however that didn't stall them entirely. Gia was a friend to everyone and she was more than that to Alex; no one would allow her to be so depressed. It would be another problem in the circus, but, in comparison to the situation with Skipper, her problem would be taken seriously by all.

The silence would have lasted longer if Marty hadn't spoke to Alex. "Don't feel like we don't care about her, Al," the zebra told the dejected lion. "We know how you much Gia means to you. You don't want anything bad to happen to her; we don't either. If you need help with comforting her, we'll be there for you."

"That's nice to hear, Marty," Alex replied; "but I think I'll be alright in doing it all myself."

Alex calmly arose from the mattress and strolled over to a corner of the boxcar.

"I'm sure you can do it yourself," said Marty; "but just remember that we talked about this."

"I guess I don't have a choice," Alex mumbled.

"Not really," said Marty who somehow heard him.

Alex brushed his friend's retort and kneeled down. He reached for a noticeable handle on the floor and pulled it up. A square section of the floor opened like the door of a cellar, only it exposed a thick wooden board with a large hole in the center of it. Alex then attached the handle to a strong fish hook on the wall.

At first glance, someone wouldn't know what it was. But, even if a person was dumb enough to mistake things for other certain things, anyone would be able to know that the hole in the wooden floor was a toilet- not one by normal standards, but one that would suit the animals well. All the boxcars had these. Anyone could say that it was so the long trips wouldn't be so uncomfortable for the animals; in truth, though, Skipper had the toilets made after a particularly awful incident. He would probably not tell anyone exactly what happened, but he would most likely give out a few hints such as "Gloria" and "fast food" and "It took me a God damn hour and a half to hose the shit out of that boxcar and kill the smell!".

"What will you say to her when you see each other again?" Melman inquired Alex.

The question plunged Alex into a moment of careful thinking. He wondered what he should say to Gia, he didn't want her to become so miserable that it would affect their trapeze act. As the lion thought hard about his friend's question, his bladder began to empty itself. A jet of urine surged down through the hole and splattered on the gravel and railroad ties below; since they were in motion, a long trail was created as the circus train sped down the tracks to its destination.

Alex eventually answered Melman's question. "I have to think long and hard about it," he said. "I don't want to make Gia's condition worse. Chances are she'll still be sad, so it could take a while for me to think of all the right things to say."

"Yeah, it's gonna take a while," said Marty. "But it'll all be worth it in the end, when she's happy and in your arms again."

"That's what I'm hoping for," Alex replied.

It was silent for a few moments until Gloria spoke up about something different, changing the subject completely. Nobody minded it at all; they simply accepted it and talked about it.

Alex soon finished urinating, closed the floor door, and joined his friends in conversation. While he appeared to be more content, Alex was, on the inside, exceedingly concerned about Gia. He didn't know what boxcar she was in or if anyone was in the boxcar with her. If someone was with her, he prayed that it was Vitaly or Stefano, someone who Gia could be comfortable talking to. It was a bizarre thought for many, but, for an individual like Alex, it was something he feared for reasons common in certain relationships.

After what felt like hours for many of the circus animals, the train's speed decreased and was now moving at a slow- one might say leisure -motion. Everyone throughout the circus train became aware that they were moments away from the indoor zoo.

In the cab of the exhausted steam locomotive, Private glanced out one of the large windows and spotted the dark, vacant shed ahead of them. "The train shed is straight ahead," he told the three penguins with him.

"Be ready to apply the brakes and cut the power," Kowalski said, taking over command since Skipper was unable to do so because of his bad attitude.

Private and Rico hurried to the main controls of the steam engine and prepared to do all necessary procedures to turn the massive machine off safely. Kowalski took over Private's place at the window to make sure there wasn't anything in their path or they were not stopping fast enough and about to crash.

"Alright, hit the brakes!" Kowalski ordered.

Rico jumped up and pulled the lever down with all his might. With the valve shut, there was a loud screeching noise from underneath the penguins' feet as the engine began to slow down.

"Shut off steam on my mark!" Kowalski commanded. There was a few short moments of silence before the tall penguin cried, "Now!"

Private pulled all the right levers and the train hissed as it came to a full stop. Vast clouds of steam spurted out of the cylinders and funnel with a deafening hissing noise.

While the train stopped a few inches from the end of the shed, the cars behind the locomotive bumped into each other. The animals inside the boxcars were knocked off their feet and fell forward. The equipment on the flatcars were also effected from the small collision. None of the equipment were damaged, but a couple of supporting ropes suddenly came loose. If the train was moving, some of the equipment would have been lost and broken, possibly beyond any repair.

The penguins doused out the firebox with a bucket of water and hoped out of the engine cab. As they strolled alongside the first flatcar, all four boxcar doors burst open and the circus animals poured out. They were all furious from the jolt caused by the train when it came to an immediate halt.

"What was that for?!" Gloria demanded as she and the others confronted the penguins.

"We're sorry if we stopped to quickly," Kowalski responded. "It was only Rico, Private, and I who were at the controls."

"Didn't Skipper give you any commands?!" Marty asked.

"No," Private replied. "You see, he's-"

Skipper furiously cut him off. "Of course I did!" he yelled at Marty. "Don't be so God damn stupid, stripes!"

Marty felt the urge to run forward and crushed Skipper under one hoove, but his better judgement was more dominant than his fury and he didn't move towards the red-headed penguin; he only stared at him with angry eyes.

"While we're all still gathered," said Kowalski; "let us take the time to explain what's going to happen while we're here at the Holmwood Indoor Zoo."

"What type of name for a zoo is that?" a circus dog named Freddie asked.

"Hey, do you give a shit about his place?" Skipper yapped. "I certainly don't! Unless there's a place or thing that we all know and hate so much, I'd say we-"

Private placed a flipper over Skipper's beak to shut him up. Skipper didn't take his youngest member's action too well. He hollered "DON'T CUT ME OFF, BITCH!" and brutally slapped Private.

Kowalski quickly continued to speak to grab everyone's attention and prevent things from going downhill. "I know that things may not be just like last winter," he said; "but that doesn't mean the next few months are going to be awful."

"With Skipper's bad attitude, it's going to be awful!" another circus dog named Frankie said in protest.

Many of the circus animals joined in on saying that Skipper and his swearing habit was going to ruin the winter for them. As anyone would expect, Skipper didn't take everyone's complaints very well. He started cussing to himself as he stomped towards the crowd. Private and Rico literally pounced onto their leader and hold him down while ordering him to calm down.

Seeing that it was going to be a while before Kowalski would be able to speak, Alex slipped away from the group to look for Gia. His anxiety was almost at its breaking point and he didn't want it to interfere with the rest of the day ahead. While he strolled down the length of the circus train, the lion would glance over his shoulder once or twice to check if anyone noticed he had departed from the crowd. Since no one saw him or was following him, he felt relieved and confident in looking for Gia.

Alex came upon the third boxcar with its doors open. Inside, he discovered Gia lying on a mattress with her body covered in a light gray blanket. The jaguar's head was facing the wall opposite of the open door. Alex was sure that the jolt from the train's immediate stop woke her up and she was trying to get back to sleep.

Even though she would be irritable from her rude awakening, Alex summoned up courage and climbed into the boxcar as quietly as he could. He crawled onto the mattress and cautiously placed a paw on her arm, which was covered by the blanket. "Gia?" Alex whispered while he calmly shook her. "Gia, you awake?"

Gia's light brown eyes slowly opened and her head turned so she could get a better look at him. "I've been awake, Alex," she said. "The train woke me up while I was taking a nap."

"I see," said Alex. He sat on the mattress and, while Gia shifted herself into a move comfortable position, he said, "Look, Gia, I don't know what happened last night between us, but, if I did something that made you uncomfortable, I'm sorry."

Gia looked at Alex with an uneasy expression for a moment before replying, "You did nothing wrong, Alex. What happened last night was wonderful."

"It was," said Alex; "but then you got really upset and ran away; remember?"

"That's right, I did," Gia said in a regretful tone of voice.

"I was really worried about you," Alex told his partner. "I thought something happened that made you afraid of me. Melman told me that you might've had a flashback of a terrible event in your past. I'm not sure what to think, but, Gia, I really wanna know so I can help; you know?"

Alex noted how immediate Gia's facial expression changed when he brought up the event of the previous night. First she was relaxed by his presence, then, when her past behavior was brought up, she grew more and more sad as the lion continued to talk about it.

After a long moment of silence, Alex took Gia's paw and held it as he said, "If it makes you feel better, we don't have to talk about it. I don't want you to be uncomfortable and sad."

Alex caressed the fur on Gia's paw as he awaited the jaguar's response. She looked up at him after a soft, miserable sigh. "That would make me feel better if I would get rid of the memory forever," she whimpered. "Sadly, I can't, because of what happened long ago."

Alex held back the words "what happened" and moved closer to his partner. Gia blinked and two streams of tears cascaded from her eyes. Alex's heart sank as he wrapped his arms around Gia. "I know when something bad happens, you can't help but feel guilty and alone," the lion said. "But you gotta remember, you're not the only one in the circus. You got Vitaly, you got Stefano, you got me. We're all here for you."

Gia sniffled and replied, "That's nice to know."

"Come on, Gia, things will look up in the future," Alex said as he calmly rotated Gia until her head was in the direction of the wall and then lowered her onto her back. If a person saw them right there and then, they would see that Alex appeared to cradle Gia like a mother would cradle her baby.

"You got nothing to be afraid of now," Alex told Gia as he slowly rocked her back and forth. "Everyone in this circus is one big happy family. We do everything together, and, whenever someone has a problem, we'll work together to fix that problem. I know that's gonna happen with Skipper, but that doesn't mean we're going to only focus on his problem."

Alex thought he had extracted all of the sadness out of Gia by his technique. However, when she looked around from her position, Gia broke free from her lover's gentle hold and pushed the lion away from her. Alex was stunned by the jaguar's reaction. Guilt took hold of him as Gia laid on her side, curled up into a ball, and began to bawl.

For a moment, Alex didn't know what he should do. He was shocked by how Gia reacted to his act of love, and he felt dread as he continued to watch his partner cry. To him, it was like she was mourning the death of someone she loved based on the unbearable sound of her sobs.

At one point, when he couldn't stand to sit and watch her cry, Alex moved close to Gia and, as he carefully placed his paw on his arm, inquired, "Gia, what's wrong? Was there something I-"

Alex was unable to finish his second question when Gia furiously slapped his paw away from her. Her action left him stunned. Even when he wanted to stay with her to try and console her, Alex decided that the best course of action was to leave Gia alone.

With a sigh, Alex got up and walked out of the boxcar. He reluctantly closed the doors to the car so no one would hear Gia's sobs. He didn't want to do what he did since- not only did it increase the pain of the ache in his heart even more -it separated him from her. For someone in his situation, it had just the same effect as if Gia had broken their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Vitaly and Stefano noticed that Alex was far from the group of circus animals and, when they saw him exceedingly forlorn, they hurried over to him. "Alice, what's wrong?" Stefano asked.

"I don't know what happened," Alex replied. "I tried to comfort Gia, tried to get her to tell me what happened last night, but she just broke down in tears."

Alex was afraid of how Vitaly would react to what he had told him and Stefano. There was no response from the tiger for a moment, but when he did react, instead of pinning the lion onto the side of the boxcar and snarling him louder than he usually would, he placed a paw on the lion's shoulder and, in response, the lion looked up at him.

"I know that you want to help Gia," Vitaly said to Alex in a calm voice; "but the depression she's going through is quite strong."

"She said that her sadness is from something long ago," said Alex; "Do you know what she's talking about?"

Alex saw Vitaly lower his eyes and his paws clench together. It didn't look like he was controlling his inner anger, but sadness instead. Stefano was also trying to keep his sadness from exposing itself. What differed him from Vitaly was that Stefano looked like he was ready to cry.

Eventually, Vitaly told Alex: "Look, I don't want you to think this is your fault. I think you should let me and Stefano handle this alone. Gia would be more comfortable talking to us because we were there for her since she was a cub."

Alex became more repentant than ever. He wanted to find out why Gia was so miserable; when Vitaly and Stefano made their way to the boxcar where the dejected jaguar was, Alex tried to convince Vitaly to let him go with them. "Vitaly, I know that-"

"Alex, Stefano and I will handle this!" Vitaly said sternly. "Go be with your friends!"

Alex, both scared and upset, hung his head and turned away from Vitaly and Stefano. As he ambled away in utter sadness, Alex heard Stefano quietly talking to Vitaly who told the sea-lion: "I just don't think he would be able to understand."

Alex then heard the boxcar doors open and, after Vitaly and Stefano climbed inside, close. He sighed and made his way to the crowd of animals who were listening to whatever Kowalski and Private were telling them.

Marty stepped up to Alex and whispered, "Al, where were you?"

"I was trying to make Gia feel better," Alex sighed.

"Did it work?"

"No, it made things worse."

"What's gotten into her?"

"I don't know and Vitaly told me to let him and Stefano handle it, so they're not gonna tell me."

Marty wrapped a hoove around his best friend and said, "I know how upset you are, but, don't lose hope, I'm sure we'll be able to help Gia get rid of her depression."

A few feet away came an incensed roar from Skipper. "HEY, YOU TWO, SHUT YOUR PIE HOLES! WE'RE TALKING HERE!"

Alex and Marty snapped their heads forward in anger. Marty was mad at a normal average; Alex, however, was furious. "Who cares what you have to say?!" he growled.

"BECAUSE I OWN THIS CIRCUS, BITCH!" Skipper hollered. "I OWN THE CIRCUS AND YOUR ASS!"

It was only the start of a fight but Alex already had enough of Skipper's mediocre rage and abuse of swear words as did everyone else. He stomped towards the penguin and grabbed him, squeezing him tightly. Alex lifted Skipper up to the level of his eyes and yelled, "Well, guess what; I DON'T GIVE A FUCK! NO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT YOU OR YOUR PROBLEMS! I ALREADY HAVE A PROBLEM WORRYING ABOUT GIA, AND I, OR ANYONE ELSE FOR THAT MATTER, DON'T NEED TO HEAR YOUR STUPID BULLSHIT!"

Alex stopped yelling to take a deep breath. Even though his words were born out of passion than rebellion, he knew that there would be another volcanic eruption from Skipper once he released him, but, whatever the penguin would yell out at him, he wouldn't care. So when Skipper growled, "Let me go!", Alex complied, only to raise his arm up high and then drop him.

Skipper slowly stumbled to his feet, quietly growling from the pain in his back. He was thankful that the fall didn't paralyze him but he still felt immense agony. The penguin glared at Alex and was about to scowl at him again but the lion spoke before he could.

"Don't even talk, Skipper!" Alex roared. "Don't say a fucking word! There's no excuse for you to be acting like an asshole when the jaguar I love is emotional hurt! She needs us to be with her, and I'm not going to stand here and listen to your yammering!"

Alex began to walk away and Skipper called out to him: "HEY, GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE THIS MINUTE!"

The only reply Skipper got from Alex was the lion flipping him off.

Just as he was about to say something else to move onto another topic, the crowd began to disperse. The circus animals had indeed had enough of Skipper's bad attitude and were finally able to show him how angry they were by walking away from him.

"Where are you going?!" Skipper demanded. "You can't just leave!"

"Watch us!" Gloria yelled.

"Don't make me drag you all back here!" Skipper hollered.

"Good luck with that!" Marty retorted.

"JUST GET BACK HERE!" Skipper ordered.

"Oh, go fuck yourself!" Freddie told him out loud.

Skipper felt the urge to run away after everyone but his feet refused to move him an inch. The rage that coursed through his veins like toxic poison and it was exceedingly difficult for him to get a single thought processed through his mind correctly.

He turned to the three other penguins for help, but they too were walking away in complete silence. "Wait a minute, you just can't leave!" Skipper called to them. "You're part of my team."

"I'm afraid we can't be with that attitude of yours," Kowalski informed him. "You won't calm down and you won't stop cussing. I'm sorry but this is what we're gonna have to do."

Kowalski and Rico waddled away but Private stayed behind. Skipper thought that his youngest member would be there by his side. He was happy for a moment until the young penguin slapped him without relent. When Skipper looked back at Private while rubbing the left side of his face, Private said, "Forgive me for this. No one can stand your bullshit."

With that, Private hurried out of the train shed to join the others, leaving Skipper all alone. For the first time, Skipper felt total desolation. When he first starting using swear words, he hoped that everyone would understand the stress he had to endure from all the finances and promoters he had to deal with. Now that everyone had turned their backs toward him, it was clear to him that his plan took him in a direction he did not expect.

For a brief moment, Skipper sensed a great amount of anger, but the sadness intervened and a fierce battle erupted in his mind. He struggled to calm himself down; despite all the energy he put in to control his emotions, it seemed impossible for him to accept that something had to be done about his current, disagreeable behavior.

The coming winter was going to be a long one based on the new atmosphere he had created, and Skipper prayed that, if it was true that Kowalski and Private were going to research various anger management techniques, it would be easy for him to regain his friendship with everyone.


	5. Chapter 5

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just want to make it clear that I am fully aware that what you're about to read is going to be unsettling and possibly crude to the point that you might be offended, but please hear me: I'm not writing this to hurt or offend anyone. If there's something in this chapter that upsets you, please write to me via a Private Message so I can avoid things like it in the future. Thank you.

The circus animals had lived in the indoor zoo now for two days (unless, of course, you counted the day they settled into the zoo, it would be three days) and everything was going quite well for everyone. It was kind of hard for them to get use to their new surroundings- especially for the lifelong circus animals who had to adapt to their separate enclosures, which were surrounded by welded wire mesh fences -but they eventually did and enjoyed themselves for the rest of the day. Since many of the enclosures were close to one another, the animals had no difficulty communicating with each other. The only difference was the penguins didn't have an enclosure for themselves, so no one knew where they were going to spend the winter and they got worried; but, as long as Skipper was out of earshot, they were fine with it.

Alex wasn't interested at all about the issue with the penguins. He was still anxious about the situation with Gia and her sudden depression and, more importantly, why no one was telling him what was troubling her. It was plausible that none of the animals who knew Gia longer than he had wanted him to know because it was probably something that would not only disturb him but make him curious. Alex remembered that Vitaly had told Stefano that he didn't want to tell him because he believed "he wouldn't be able to understand". Even though that statement made it clear that whatever happened to Gia so many years ago was not something that should be brought up for any reason, it only intensified the lion's concern and curiosity.

In spite of everyone's refusal to provide any detail about Gia, there was a high chance that the truth would come out eventually.

Before the train arrived at the indoor zoo, the staff worked out where each animal was to be placed, like Manu and Maya, the elephants, would receive the most spacious enclosure and the Lemurs would get the enclosure with the most trees. Whether it was to save space or they didn't have enough enclosures for everyone, Alex and Gia were to share the same enclosure for the entire winter. Alex was thrilled at first to know he would be close to Gia and, with the right amount of comfort, he would be able to get her to tell him what was making her so sad. On the other hand, the arrangement bemused the lion immensely. Considering that they were both in love with each other, despite the obvious emotional dilemma that was interfering with their relationship, Alex thought that the arrangement the zoo made was like he and Gia were placed in the same enclosure to test their love- as if someone had set the whole thing up like a joke made to humiliate him.

On the same day he learned that he and Gia were to share the same enclosure, Alex had overheard two of the zoo employees conversing about the arrangements that had been made. Because of the undeniable circumstances, the lion had to listen to what they were saying. He didn't get much, but he did hear one employee say, "I just find it odd that we would put a male lion and a female jaguar in the same habitat. Don't you think things would get too amorous?" This was followed by the other replying with: "I thought the same thing, too. However, when I looked at the document that explained the background of the jaguar, I'm pretty sure no one's gonna be fucking anyone."

Alex was bewildered. What he heard made absolutely no sense. Were they actually thinking he and Gia would have sex? If so, then why were they put in the same enclosure? It made no sense whatsoever. But it did inject Alex with more perplexion, and with it came slight anxiety. He immediately remembered how sexually excited he would get whenever he saw Gia in any type of pose, especially when her body or rear end was in a certain position that made her appear extremely arousing. He knew that his wisdom would always overpower his desires, but sometimes he wondered if that was false. He cringed at the unspeakable things that could happen. Of course, it was his thoughts, so he was sure that it wouldn't happen in real life as long as he kept himself in good order.

Believing that he could get her to explain everything by being kindhearted and affectionate, Alex did not question Gia about her melancholia straight after they moved into their temporary enclosure. He was absolutely certain that the only way to build a trust with Gia was to make her feel one hundred percent comfortable. He had already made the jaguar cry twice without intention and he did not want to make her upset for a third time. There was no accurate time of day he would be able to win Gia's trust and she would tell him all that he needed to know, but the one thing that Alex was aware of the most was that he had to be patient and compassionate.

Whether the circus animals called it their second or third day at the indoor zoo, the day started off on a good note. Everyone was fed breakfast according to their natural diets. Alex was fine eating raw meat, but he prefered fish than steak. Gia didn't mind either, although she would much rather eat chicken than what was given to her and Alex. They knew immediately that every meal over the next few months would be nothing but raw meat. Alex and Gia ate their breakfast without complaint but silently prayed that they would receive fish and chicken on certain occasions.

After they finished their morning meal, Alex and Gia headed to the secret house in their enclosure to relax. If truth be told, it wasn't a secret house because all of the enclosures had special houses for the animals when they needed some privacy. The lion and jaguar walked to their respective beds, which were both situated in a corner with each bed along one wall to make a ninety degree angle, and laid down. They were thankful that the mattresses were at least a little bit comfortable so they could sleep well at night; they couldn't imagine how much discomfort they would feel after sleeping on what felt like rocks and hackneyed cotton.

Just like his friends- Marty, Melman, and Gloria -, Alex was okay in spending a few months in a zoo enclosure, but he wondered how everyone else was doing; most specifically the animals who had lived in the circus long before he and his friends came along. The only circus animal he knew was getting used to their temporary home was Gia. For the past two days, she was calm and actually took a sort of liking to the enclosure. Her liking prompted her to ask Alex about his former home at the Central Park Zoo. Alex was able to answer all of Gia's questions and that settled her curiosity without any trouble. Even when the jaguar's spirit of inquiry was satisfied, the lion still had to tame his, and the only way to calm it down was to get Gia to talk. The right time was no where in sight and Alex was becoming impatient, but he was still aware that he had to be even-tempered to make Gia as relaxed as best as he could.

Alex was about to close his eyes and sleep when Gia's elegant voice broke the silence. "Alex," she said; "I know I've asked you this too many times but, when you were a zoo animal, did you ever want a secret house like this in your enclosure?"

Alex thought for a moment before replying with: "Sometimes I wished for a secret house that was bigger than the one I had, especially in the winter."

"How small was it?" Gia inquired.

"When I was a cub, the place was huge," Alex said. "But as I got older, it just got smaller and smaller. Sometimes I wondered if it was just me growing up or if the room was shrinking."

Gia laughed before saying, "I guess the King of New York City didn't get all he wanted."

Alex rolled his eyes. "No, he didn't," he replied.

He heard Gia giggling to herself before she went quiet. After sitting up, the lion pivoted his head to see the jaguar lying flat on her bed. Gia's light brown eyes made contact with Alex's blue eyes. At that moment, Alex believed the time to ask Gia about her past misery had finally come. He wasn't sure how she would react to him when he would question her about why she suddenly became depressed after they kissed, but he knew that as long as he was caring and empathetic, Gia would find it in her heart to explain everything to him.

"Gia?" Alex inquired. "Can I ask you something to...you know...kill the cat?"

Gia was confused and a bit surprised by what he said. "What do you mean 'kill the cat'?" she asked.

"You know," Alex told her; "to lighten my curiosity."

"Your curiosity about what?" Gia inquired.

Alex briefly hesitated before he said, "About...your past."

Gia felt a sense of unease mix in with her perplexion. She gazed up at Alex and asked him: "What about my past?"

Alex bit his lip. "Um...you know, the..." he said while searching for words. Even when he was trying his hardest, Alex couldn't think straight because he feared that he would resurrect the memories that ignited Gia's depression and she would start crying again.

Gia immediately noticed Alex's anxiety and she grew worried. "Alex, are you okay?" she inquired.

"Uh...yeah, Gia, I'm okay," Alex responded in a nervous tone.

"Are you sure?" Gia questioned. "Because, to me, you look like you're about to have a breakdown. Is there something on your mind you want to talk to me about?"

"Well...uh..." Alex stammered. "I...oh, God, I can't speak!"

"Why?" Gia asked as she immediately got up from her bed. "Alex, what's the matter with you? Why are you so tense all of a sudden?"

"BECAUSE OF YOU!" Alex blurted out.

The lion slapped a paw over his mouth as his eyes shot open, and the jaguar, whose eyes were also wide open in shock, staggered back with her mouth agape. The felines stared at each other for a long time, their eyes locked on each other with the other displaying a different facial expression. Alex looked so terror-stricken that his heart was probably on the verge of stopping. While Gia appeared just as horrified as Alex was, she felt more sorrow than shock. Tears became visible at the bottom of her eyes and the jaguar collapsed onto her bed, her face hidden behind her paws.

Alex was filled with dread instantaneous. This was what he was trying to avoid. All he wanted was to learn why Gia had been exceedingly sad for reasons unknown to him; instead of getting what he hoped for, he got the opposite. The three words that had slipped out of his mouth had a terrible impact on Gia whose heart shattered into a million pieces just like a mallet against a pane of glass. She wasn't sobbing loudly, but Alex knew that she was unable to control her emotions because of his short statement which was not what he intended to say.

Though he believed the damage had been done, Alex stepped towards the bed and sat down. He kept himself at a safe distance from Gia as a small precaution since she had reacted violently when he had tried to console her in one of the circus train's boxcars. He took a deep breath.

"Gia, I'm sorry that I said that," Alex began. "That wasn't what I was going to say. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Gia remained flat on the mattress with face in her paws but her sobs decreased in volume. It was now possible that she was listening to him despite of what he had just let slip.

"Look, I know sometimes people don't want to tell other people about their pasts because it might bring back awful memories," Alex continued; "and I'm sure that's the case here, but I still don't understand why you got so upset after we kissed after our last show. I've been worried to death about you and no one would tell me what happened that made you so depressed. Like I said, usually it's none of my business but you're my girlfriend and I dearly care about you. I know I sound like I'm being a total nag or something but I just can't take it anymore."

Gia slowly lifted her head from her paws and her teary eyes met Alex's worried eyes. This gave the lion a small sense of confidence as he knew that the jaguar was becoming fully aware of his concern and, hopefully, that would led her to believe that he would understand her back-story.

"Gia, I'm pleading with all my heart," Alex begged. "I need to know why you've been so miserable. Since no one else will tell me, I need to know from you. Please; it breaks my heart to see you like this. Believe me; I can't help if I don't know what's bugging you."

Alex tried his best not to pressure Gia into telling him the reason why she had been so disconsolate. Despite of all the effort he put into it, Alex still felt like he was forcing Gia to tell him everything and he worried that, if it was true, she would become more upset and even afraid of him.

Gia recognized the sheer concern in Alex's voice. He was begging so he could provide her with all the commiseration he could give her. She regretted that one time when she slapped Alex's paw when he tried to comfort her when the train arrived at the indoor zoo; more importantly, she felt immensely guilty for injecting him with so much apprehension because of how silent she was for the past two days. Even though she did talk to the others whenever they would start a conversation with her, she was unusually quiet since she and Alex were put in their temporary enclosure. At one point, Gia wondered if Alex would become obsessed in finding the truth that it would tear the love in half. But because he was asking her and showing all signs of concern and willingness to comfort her, Gia now knew that she couldn't keep her story a secret from him forever.

Gia took a moment to sit up straight. Her light brown, tear-filled eyes once again met the blue eyes of her lion boyfriend and Alex immediately noticed the pink rings in the sclera of her eyes, the obvious result of crying. Gia sniffled and said, "You're right, Alex. I shouldn't have acted the way I did for the past few days. I feel terrible just thinking about it."

Alex noted how cracked Gia's voice was because of how powerful her depression was. He reached out and placed a paw on the jaguar's shoulder. "Don't worry about what you did to me," he replied in a soft, consoling voice. "I understand that you were in a very strong depression and it might not have gone away completely. But let's not worry about that. Just tell me what's been bothering you; please."

Silence rained for a short time as Gia pondered what to say next. She didn't want to hit Alex with the dreadful events all at once, that would only led to her colliding with a fierce wave of questions the lion would ask. Eventually, she turned to Alex and asked him: "Alex, did you ever get sick or hurt once in your life and you thought that it would ruin the rest of your life?"

"Well, when I was a cub, I'd usually get the common stomach ache and sometimes I would hit my head, arm, or leg against something hard," Alex responded. "Pretty much all the usual stuff happened to me. I can't really say if something happened that I thought would 'ruin the rest of my life'."

Gia lowered her head. "Aren't you a lucky duck," she murmured.

"Gia, you don't have hesitate anymore," Alex said as he moved closer to the sad jaguar. "I'm listening."

Gia calmly inhaled and exhaled through her nose and then commenced telling her story.

"From the moment I was born," Gia began; "I was terribly sick. I never knew why but Vitaly eventually told me that my mother was dreadfully ill herself when she was pregnant with me. I also learned that, when she was due to give birth, she suddenly died. An entire team of veterinarians worked day-and-night to save me, which included an emergency C-section. I spent months in a veterinary hospital before I was eventually bought by the former circus owner. Vitaly said that because all the zoos in Italy were either full or unable to continue business, it was easy for me to be sold to the circus for a reasonable price."

Alex asked, "Is something like that even legal?"

"I don't know," Gia replied. "But since the man could afford the medicine I needed to take, he was allowed to keep me."

"Okay, I get it," said Alex. He then asked another question. "How long did you have to take medicine? I don't see you taking any now."

Gia continued her story. "I was taking multiple types of medicine to help my body until I was eventually healthy enough to be as active as the other circus animals were, but I don't know for sure how old I was, maybe like ten months or maybe one year old. After it was alright for me to stop taking all the medication, I was then taught my old circus act of sitting, standing, and rolling over. And later on, Vitaly and his girlfriend Zoya got married, and everyone was so happy."

Even though it was not appropriate for him to ask such a question at this point in time, Alex just had to ask Gia about Vitaly's wife. "What was Vitaly's wife like?" he inquired.

"She was a very nice tigress," Gia said. "She was always cheery and supportive and, all in all, a wonderful animal to be around. In fact, just like how Vitaly was like a father to me, Zoya was my mother figure."

"I see," Alex said before wrapping an arm around Gia. "Now, I really hate to ask you this but, what exactly happened that had you in tears for the past two days. I know that it's wrong for me to ask but-"

Gia covered Alex's mouth with one of her paws and he immediately ceased speaking. "It's fine, Alex," she told him. "I shouldn't keep you waiting any longer."

Gia slid closer to Alex and continued telling her story. "When I entered my adolescence, I started feeling some sort of discomfort in my body below my stomach. I told Zoya about it and she said that it was normal for girls to feel a small amount of pain when they became adults, but the pain I felt kept getting worse. I would try to ignore it but it was hard to do anything because of how intense it felt.

"Months went by and I couldn't get rid of the pain. Those months were a living hell. I hardly ate anything because my stomach constantly ached and I started throwing up once every few hours, but no one bothered to raise the alarm and take me to a vet. I remember Vitaly and Zoya would let me sleep with them so I would feel better, even though it didn't help the reduce the pain at all. I woke up in the middle of the night once while the train was en route to a city in Slovakia, and I was in total agony. I was screaming and crying while Vitaly and Zoya tried desperately to calm down.

"It felt like an eternity before morning came and the train finally stopped. As soon one of the clowns found me in pain, I was rushed to the hospital and I had to undergo immediate surgery. I'm thankful they knocked me out but I was still in pain afterwards."

Gia had to stop as tears cascaded from her eyes, causing a small stinging sensation as she wiped them away. Alex pulled her close to him in a tight hug. The lion stroked the fur on the jaguar's back as she softly sobbed for a full minute.

When Alex loosened his grip, Gia looked up and told him what he needed to know. "Because of how sick my mother was, my body had a tough time cooperating with me in my early years," she explained with a few sniffles; "and the pain I felt when I got older was not part of me growing up. I'm not sure why it happened but I ended up with ovarian torsion."

There was another short period of silence as Gia tried to hold back tears. Alex continued to caress his girlfriend's fur as she pulled herself together. When she eventually calmed down, Gia asked Alex: "Do you even know what that means?"

Alex hesitated for a moment and he appeared to be extremely embarrassed, as if what he was about to say would most likely have a very unpleasant effect on his exceptional reputation. Nonetheless, he answered Gia with: "I won't tell you in detail how I found out because it's totally uncalled for, but, when it comes to the 'where do babies come from' question, I have a pretty good idea what the word 'ovarian' relates to. But what exactly is ovarian torsion?"

"It's a condition when the body part in question is twisted so much that it causes terrible pain," Gia explained in a calm but doleful voice. "Sometimes it can be so severe that they have to be removed. That's what happened to me."

Gia's head drooped and her mouth quivered as she tried not to bawl. Alex tightened the hug once more. "I'm sorry that you had to remember all that," he cooed. "I know how horrible it is to go through a traumatic event and not want to tell other people about it, so I don't blame you for being so heavy-hearted."

"You're sweet, Alex," Gia replied. "Even so, it's still hard for me to cope with all that happened years ago. You don't even know the worst part."

"I think I know what it is," Alex told her. "Believe me, it's really heart wrenching to know that it's impossible to have a cub when you feel like you're ready to be a parent. I don't exactly know that feeling, but it's still-"

"No, Alex, you don't understand!" Gia cried without warning.

This caught Alex instantly off-guard and he jumped back in surprise, his back harshly smashed into the wall. As he recovered from the abrupt shock, Alex quickly noticed that Gia appeared sadder than he had ever since her; he saw her how low her head and ears were. He was sure that she didn't mean to scare him like that, but it was what she screamed that compelled him to approach her.

Gia sensed Alex as he cautiously crawled up to her. She simply lifted her head again and said, "I'm sorry, Alex. I didn't mean to yell at you."

"It's okay, Gia," Alex responded. "But, please be honest; what is it that I don't understand?"

"You're right for saying that I'm unable to bear any cubs," Gia told the lion. "There's just one thing you should really know. The morning after our last show, I came to realize that...that..."

"You came to realize what, Gia?"

"Our love has gotten very strong when we first admitted it to each other and, even though I teased you when I caught you staring at my butt, I realized that...that there was a high risk that you...you could get addicted."

"Addicted? Gia, after all I heard from you, the word 'addicted' came completely out of the blue. Even if there was anything, what precisely would I get addicted to?"

"Don't you get it?! I can never get pregnant and we are in a powerful relationship. The thought that keeps scaring me out of my wits is that you...that you would get addicted to...sex."

Gia's statement punched Alex with intense blows to his heart and his brain. The story of his trapeze partner's dreadful past was already bad enough. Hearing her tell him what she was afraid of now that they were deeply in love was equivalent to her informing him that she couldn't continue being in a relationship with him. Alex didn't know what to say to Gia or even he should speak at all- his heart simultaneously told him not to, and he obeyed.

While he felt exceedingly sorry for Gia after learning about her past, Alex loathed himself. He hated himself for all those times he would become sexually excited whenever he spotted Gia in any type of pose that aroused him. He despised himself for those dreams he would occasionally which would involve him and Gia in a romantic setting like a hotel room where they would get down and dirty. It was true that Alex would quickly snap out of his fantasies on his own or with the help of a friend, but that still didn't do anything to soothe the self-hate rushing through his veins.

It was immensely hard for Alex to comprehend everything that surrounded him; of spite of that, he was determined to keep the kinship between him and Gia alive and well enough to continue thriving. He had to let Gia know that he understood all that she told him and that he would not let himself become an uncivilized, sex-thirsty brute- his good nature and excellent reputation would never allow it.

Alex lightly took hold of Gia's paws and said, "Gia, look at me."

The jaguar's head rose and their eyes were soon reunited with each other.

"I'm sure that you might be kind of embarrassed for saying that, but I completely understand what you're talking about," Alex told Gia in a soothing tone of voice. "When it all starting happening, I didn't know what to think. I was more scared than I ever was in all my life; but now that you've told me what's been bothering you, I feel a lot better. Don't you feel a little bit better at all?"

"I...I guess I do," Gia responded. "Only a little."

"I will admit that the last thing you told me really shocked me," Alex continued; "nonetheless, you did the right thing in letting all your feelings out, even when deep down you regret it. It's just like how I got the courage to tell you how much I love you, but this moment has a much powerful outcome. With what I've learned, I can help you feel better."

Gia sighed. "How, Alex? How are you going to help me? And how do I know this isn't a trick for you to-"

"Gia, calm down," Alex said as he gently grabbed her shoulders. "Don't think I have no clue what you're thinking, and, yes, it's true of what I occasionally fantasize but that's not important- it doesn't help this situation one bit. What I want you to know is that I have healthy ways of keeping my sexual urges under control, and I will always make sure that they are kept under control. I would never want to hurt you; nor do I ever want my secret desires to possess me and make me do the things that would ruin my image. Gia, no matter what happens in the future, I will do everything in my power to keep you safe and sound, just like how all those vets saved you life."

During his vow to protect her, Alex watched as Gia's frown curled up into a smile and more tears streamed down her face. By the time he finished, she could hardly contain her fresh emotions any longer and she embraced the lion. Alex returned the hug as bliss filled his heart. They both savored the moment as they did with the other wonderful memories they made together or with their friends. The big difference was clear for all to see: their heart-tugging moment restored faith that their love will continue to flourish.

Just then, the felines heard some sort of commotion from the other enclosures. From the voices that could be heard, they determined that King Julien was proclaiming something and everyone around him were telling the lemur to stop being foolish.

Alex frowned. "And there goes the moment," he said with a sigh.

"Don't worry about them, Alex," Gia said. "We'll get involved when we need to. Why don't we stay back here and talk; what do you say?"

"I'd say it's better than listening to Skipper's shit," Alex replied in a goofy voice.

Gia laughed at Alex's response and the way he changed his voice. The sight of the jaguar being happy made the lion's smile widen. Seeing Gia in joy once again was the result Alex wanted and, after a couple days of waiting for the right time and preparing himself to console his girlfriend, he got what he hoped for, and the long period of time he had to endure was well worth it in the end.


	6. Chapter 6

King Julien furiously clapped his hands to keep everyone's attention. "I demand that you all continue to listen and respect me!" he pouted for the third time that morning.

"Who would respect you?!" Freddie barked. "You're not a king!"

"Yeah, just because you throw a crappy crown on your head doesn't mean you can act like a spoiled brat!" Jonesy shouted.

Their remarks were met with the roaring, angry agreements of the other circus animals with the exception of Maurice and Mort, his most loyal followers.

This made King Julien exceedingly indignant. "JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" he screamed as he ferociously (and childishly) slammed his foot on the tree branch he, Maurice, and Mort were standing on. Because it was sturdy, the branch did not snap in the slightest.

All of the circus animals fell silent. The lemur had exasperated them enough by talking and everyone was becoming more angry because he was yelling at them for not paying any attention to him. King Julien certainly was acting like a spoiled child.

"Now, before I was so rudely interrupted," King Julien began; "I have come up with a fantastic, brilliant idea. It is an idea that not one of you could have come up with in a million, bazillion years!"

The circus animals rolled their eyes. Whatever King Julien was going to say, it would most likely be something at least one of them had already thought up of. The lemur was as predictable as anyone could imagine.

"As I'm sure you already know," King Julien said; "for the past several days, the penguin who calls himself Skipper has been running amok in our circus, making it filthy by spewing bad words into our faces! I cannot stress enough how bad this situation has gotten. Nothing has been done to stop him and we have been plagued by this bad word epidemic! Even though Skipper has secluded himself from us all, the shittity-shits and the fuckity-fucks continue to destroy our brains, turning us all into creatures who fire curse words from our mouths like dragons!"

Throughout King Julien's rant, the other circus animals couldn't help but agree with him. Sure, he would often throw a few goofy words into his sentences, but everyone still knew exactly what he was complaining about, which was quite extraordinary.

"But you all have no need to fear; for I, your smart and wonderful king, have come up with the best idea in the whole universe!" King Julien continued. "We must all band together and take down Skipper once and for all. We shall gather all the soap and toothbrushes we can find and scrub the dirtiness out of him! Who's with me?!"

At first, everyone desired to cheer in agreement. The reason none of the circus animals did though was that the lemur's proposition sounded a bit too extreme since soap was harmful if it was ingested. Another reason was that they were still waiting for Kowalski and Private to announce that they had done research for anger management. If there was no word from them about their progress, everyone would have to resort to their own, harsh tactics. For now though, everyone had to be patient.

King Julien surveyed the animals in their respective enclosures. "Why are you all being quiet?" he inquired. "Why are none of you cheering for your king? Do you all want to be speaking curse words forever and ever?!"

Maurice, having enough of King Julien's loud rambling, decided to speak. "Your highness, if you will allow me to say something," the Aye Aye said; "I think that we should leave this matter to the penguins."

"Maurice, don't be ridiculous!" King Julien retorted. "What will those penguins do? They have done nothing for the past few days!"

Trying to avoid another heated argument with the other animals, Kowalski stepped forward. "I would like to assure you that we have," he stated. "Private and I have done as much research online as we could. The only reason why we haven't gotten as much information as we hoped for is because the only computer in the zoo is used by the manager and his colleagues."

"Not to mention that the computer is located at the near end of the zoo," Private added. "In order for us to get there, we either have to travel through the air vents or sneak our way through the zoo without being detected."

King Julien frowned, obviously not accepting the penguins' explanations for the delay of information. "Yes, those are very logical reasons," he said without interest. "However, not one of them is going to stop Skipper. We must stop Skipper ourselves!"

"If you are insisting that we should take our own action against Skipper," Kowalski told the lemur; "then you will have to let Private, Rico, and myself do the thinking."

Maurice gave King Julien a look that said "I told you so" but King Julien rolled his eyes, ignored him, and was about to continue his argument, but once again, he was interrupted.

"You seriously should listen to him!" Marty called out to the lemur. "He knows exactly what he's talking about!"

"Can he be trusted?!" King Julien snapped as he pointed at Kowalski. His finger then went to Private and the lemur hollered, "Can we trust these penguins at all?!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Maurice groaned as he facepalmed. "Can't we all just leave this up to the penguins to work things out?!"

"NO!" King Julien roared. "We must make Skipper suffer for his sins!"

At last, the rest of the circus animals lost patience. All at once, everyone was relentless yelling at the Ring-Tailed Lemur. They clobbered him with every insult and reason for him to keep his big mouth shut. They used as much as energy they could to make their rage potent and their voices loud and hostile.

The brouhaha lasted for almost a minute until King Julien finally gave up and hopped off the branch. As the aggravated lemur retreated into the nearby bushes, Mort began to speak. His voice was quiet at first, but he screamed out the last sentence in fear.

"King Julien was right!" the mouse lemur said. "The shittity-shits and the fuckity-fucks are destroying our brains! We are becoming dragons! I DON'T WANT TO BE A DRAGON!"

"Mort, relax," Maurice told him, still annoyed by King Julien's irksome shouting. "No one is going to turn into a dragon. King Julien made that up. But all the same, he's very angry about Skipper's use of swear words."

"Just like the rest of us!" Gloria added.

A few circus animals voiced their agreement before everyone retreated deep into their enclosures.

Marty, Gloria, and Melman were the only animals who did not go in the secret houses of their enclosures. They gathered as close to each other as they could so they could talk in privacy.

"Well, that was chaotic!" said Melman.

"No kidding!" Marty replied. "For a moment, I thought Julien was actually being smart. But, as usual, he proves us wrong!"

"First, Skipper goes on a swearing streak," said Gloria. "Then we start swearing, and now King Julien went insane! What the hell is going on here?!"

"Skipper pretty much made us all angry and now we're doing the same thing as he did to us," Melman responded. "We can't help but swear whenever we get mad. It's become more than a habit, it's now a disease!"

"And our only hope is for Skipper to say he's sorry and that he'll take anger management classes," said Marty.

"I'm not sure that there are any anger management classes for animals," Melman said.

"Well there should be!" Gloria snapped. "How else will Skipper get help?!"

"Well, just like the penguins said," Melman told the hippo; "we can go online and search for anger management techniques."

Gloria appeared to have calmed down. "Maybe we can," she said; "and, hopefully, everything will be cheery and sensational again."

"Speaking of all things sensational," Marty said as he gestured to the giraffe and hippo to look in a certain direction.

Melman and Gloria turned to glance in the same direction as Marty, and they spotted Alex and Gia walking out of their secret house. Both lion and jaguar were merry as they strolled into the open enclosure close to their partner. The sight of the felines together and smiling along with the sound of Gia laughing did its magic and drained the vexation out of the trio.

"Looks like Alex and Gia talked things out and now she's not depressed anymore," Melman said.

"I knew he could do it," Marty added.

Gia hopped up on a small rock so she would be at eye level with Alex. When the jaguar was on top of the rock, the lion turned to her and they warmly embraced.

"Aw, that's so adorable!" Gloria said admiring the scene in the nearby enclosure.

After a few endearing words were exchanged between them, Alex and Gia closed their eyes and pressed their lips together in a heartfelt kiss. This caused Marty, Gloria, and Melman to react by giving them a miniature but vehement ovation. They were aware that they were spoiling the moment for the but they couldn't help it. It was greatly wonderful to see their friend with his girlfriend, who had now been freed from a terrible depression, and their kiss was the cherry on top.

Alex and Gia managed to kiss for a few more seconds before they pulled their lips away from each other and eyed the cheering animals far away from them. The lion and jaguar sauntered to the wire mesh fence to speak with the zebra, hippo, and giraffe.

"Thanks for the applause, guys," Alex remarked. "That was very nice of you to do so."

"Ah, we couldn't help ourselves, Alex!" Melman replied. "It's just so nice to see you and Gia together again!"

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" Gia asked holding Alex's paws.

Marty, Melman, and Gloria nodded.

"You both think about moving it up a notch?" Gloria inquired a bit ecstatically, leading to Marty and Melman wanting to know the same thing.

Fully aware of what had occurred a few minutes before he and Gia had exited the secret house in their enclosure, Alex told his friends: "Now let's not get too excited about that. Something like marriage will come when it does, but Gia and I will need a lot of time to think about and decide when the right time has come."

"Really, Al?" Marty asked both suspiciously and sarcastically. "You and Gia have been together for over a year, and neither of you have thought about the day you both would get married? That is something I cannot believe!"

Alex was going to say something but Gia immediately spoke. "Two people can't be married just because someone suggested it to them," she said. "You are right though; Alex and I have been together for over a year now and we have finally admitted our love for each other. I guess that we were both so busy with Trapeze Americano that it took us this long to say something."

Gia had spoke with the familiar voice everyone had known since the start. Alex registered how unflustered his girlfriend's voice was for he was able to hear her beautiful Italian accent as she communicated with his friends. It was a massive relief considering that Gia was in unbearable distress because she was afraid that Alex would use her for sexual pleasure, but, as Alex had told her, he would never allow his secret desires to control him and that he knew a few tactics to keep his lust in check.

Gloria then inquired, "I hope I'm not hurting you by asking but, how come you were sad for the past few days?"

Alex and Gia glanced at each other for one brief moment. Even when Gia had explained everything to Alex privately, they were both immensely scared of what could happen when Marty, Melman, and Gloria were made aware of Gia's past and the distinct phobia that was most likely to have a powerful impact on her and Alex's relationship.

Eventually, Gia said, "I'd rather not talk about it. It's very personal."

"Okay, I understand," Gloria replied with a nod.

"As long as you and Alex worked things outs," Marty told Gia; "we're all good."

"Thank you," Gia responded.

"Gia and I had a nice talk and things are better now," Alex said to his friends. "By the way, it was kinda hard for us to chat because everyone was going apeshit out here. What happened?"

Marty, Melman, and Gloria rolled their eyes and groaned.

"Julien was complaining about you-know-who," Marty explained. "He suggested that we should scrub Skipper's mouth out with soap."

"Just like parents back in the fifties?" Alex asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah," Melman answered. "The only thing is we wanted to know from the other penguins before we did anything, but King Julien just went right off his rocker and called the penguins lazy!"

"That lemur is right about one thing though," Gloria mumbled; "everyone's getting so angry and using swear words almost all the time."

"I've definitely noticed that," said Alex.

"What do you guys think we should do?" Gia inquired.

"We should simply leave this up to Kowalski and Private," Melman replied. "No one else should get involved unless they can no longer handle the situation by themselves."

"And they're strong both in the heart and the brain," Marty added. "So things won't get too violent around here."

The five circus animals agreed.

"Speaking of the heart," Gia said as her Alex's eyes met each other; "after all the love and kindness he gave me when I was miserable, I can proudly say that Alex truly has a big heart."

"And if I can say something related," Marty said; "even if Alex is a lion and a predator, his heart will always be bigger than his stomach."

The animals shared a good laugh together. As they did so, Gia joked, "When did he prove that? After he tried to eat you guys?"

Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman instantly fell silent. Gia realized that her joke was somehow inappropriate, her ears dropped in embarrassment and she asked, "Did that actually happen?"

"Yep," Marty replied rather coolly. "Alex bit me on the butt! Yes he did!"

Gloria started laughing as Alex punched Marty's shoulder. "Oh, shut up!" he said trying to suppress the laughter. "You just can't help but remind me of that, can't you?!"

"True," Marty responded. "But that won't hide the teeth marks, won't it?"

Alex facepalmed as Gloria and Gia laughed hysterically. Melman only chuckled and Marty just smiled goofily.

After she calmed down, Gia said, "I guess that's a story for another day, huh?"

"Absolutely," Gloria chuckled.

"Well," Melman said with a yawn; "I think I'm gonna take a nap. See you guys later."

"I think I'll do the same," Marty said.

Gloria also stated that she was going to sleep for a while, and with that, the zebra, giraffe, and hippo parted ways, leaving Alex and Gia alone with each other.

Alex turned to Gia and asked, "You wanna head back inside and get a little sleep?"

"Sure," Gia replied. "Since nothing else is going on, we might as well lay down and relax."

Alex and Gia turned away from the fence and began to walk back to their secret house. When they were halfway across their enclosure, Alex's head pivoted to the right and he looked behind him. In his enclosure watching him and Gia was Vitaly. The tiger stood firmly up on a flat rock, beaming warmly at him. Alex smiled as he knew instantly that he was proud of him for being by Gia's side when she needed it.

Gia noticed that Alex was looking behind and, when she saw Vitaly, she waved at him. Vitaly waved back and then sauntered away. The lion and jaguar then faced forward and entered the secret house of their enclosure to enjoy a pleasant nap.


	7. Chapter 7

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry that I haven't updated this story in a while. I've been busy with my two other popular stories and haven't given this fanfic that much attention. However, I wish to assure you that I will continue to work on this story, and my reason for it is in this chapter.

Skipper refilled his mug with more raspberry flavored water and took a swig as he ambled back to the stack of books he was using as a chair. After situating himself on the top book for the third time that night, the penguin tried to relax but couldn't. All he could do to comfort himself was drink cup after cup of water. He would've filled the mug with something alcoholic, like beer, rum, or whisky, but he thought that a stomach ache would be a more suitable consequence than all the symptoms of intoxication, mostly the common symptom of vomiting.

Skipper sipped from the mug and shuddered after he hiccupped. "Ugh, there's the aftertaste," he moaned.

Skipper glanced around the room. "Eh, look on the bright side, Skipper," he said to himself; "there's no one here to give you shit. They've done enough turning their backs on you; the traitors!"

Drinking lots of beverages had become Skipper's latest habit. Not only did he use it to make himself feel better, he also spent night after night drinking and talking to himself since no one was around him any more. This unusual activity started when the circus had settled in to the indoor zoo and he had discovered several vending machines outside the restrooms, all of which were aligned in a perfect row. Using a few everyday materials and his knowledge on espionage, Skipper was able to unlock the vending machines and steal a couple bags of snacks and a bottled beverage.

Even though his new fixation of shutting himself up in the manager's office and soothing his low spirits with water and juice was entirely unhealthy, Skipper didn't care if someone called him out about it. As he clearly recalled, all the other circus animals, including his own penguin comrades, shunned him for his obscene language and behavior days ago. If there was one animal who was concerned about him, he or she would have come and talked to him- but no; that didn't happen. Just as he expected, not one circus animal came looking for him in dire need of an explanation to his current, abnormal habit. The penguin was sure that when someone did show up and confront him, he would immediately reply with "Because you bastards gave me the cold shoulder!".

As he took another swig of flavored water, Skipper pondered what his penguin companions were up to. He had heard them tell the others that they were going to do a bit of research for anger management techniques time and time again, and yet, that was another thing that didn't happen. "Figures," Skipper sighed. "Those ass-wipes are probably happy that I haven't shown my face in public since we came here. They're probably partying as I sit on my ass and drink. What nice animals they are."

Skipper belched and shuddered again from the aftertaste.

Meanwhile, Skipper's comrades- Kowalski, Rico, and Private -were walking through the zoo having an important conversation. The subject matter was their leader, his habits both old and new, and the bad effect it had on the other animals. Whenever Kowalski or Private spoke, the other and Rico would nod and give their opinion. Because everyone else was asleep, the trio had to be very quiet. Having a foul-mouthed penguin was one thing; having a bunch of annoyed animals who were disturbed from their slumber was something else; something they had to avoid just as much as the progression of their current situation.

"The way I see it," Kowalski told Private and Rico; "Skipper's bad attitude has pushed him into isolation after we all shunned him for his constant swearing, and, as the three of us have found out last night, things are undoubtedly getting worse."

"If that's the case," Private said; "we should have gone on the computer and did nonstop research on anger management techniques; am I right?"

Rico voiced his agreement in his bizarre language.

"You're right, Private, we should have done that," Kowalski said; "but the only computer in the zoo is in the manager's office and Skipper would always lock himself in there and do whatever he does in there."

Rico asked Kowalski something which shocked both him and Private.

"Skipper would never watch porn!" Private gasped. "Are you crazy?!"

Rico was about to yell but Kowalski quickly intervened. "Be quiet, you two!" he whispered angrily. "Everyone's sleeping; remember?!"

"Sorry," Private replied quietly. "I just disapprove of what Rico said."

Rico then spoke, obviously apologizing to Private and Kowalski for what he said about Skipper.

"Alright," said Kowalski; "let's try and get back on topic."

Unfortunately, Kowalski wasn't able to carry on with the conversation as a familiar lemur appeared on the opposite side of the fence behind him, Private, and Rico. "Hey, penguins," King Julien said, startling the trio; "why are you not in the land of dreams like everyone else?"

"We are busy talking about Skipper," Kowalski told the lemur; "and, if you don't mind, we'd like it if it was only us speaking."

Kowalski motioned for Private and Rico to follow him away from the ring-tailed lemur, but King Julien didn't let them get that far. "Uh, I do mind," said the lemur. "I do not like that Skipper running around and going on with the shitty-shits and the fuckity-fucks!"

"No one does," Private responded. "But Skipper hasn't been active since we got here."

"And I should be worried about his not-being-activeness, because?" King Julien inquired flatly.

"Because it's important that we get him help," Private stated.

"Everyone else says that you three will get him help," King Julien said. "Have you find any help for him yet?"

The penguins glanced at each other before Kowalski replied with, "Well, no. Not yet."

"I'll accept the no," said King Julien. "You three have done nothing and are going to hell."

"Not yet, I said," Kowalski stated. "We still have the computer in the manager's office. The only problem is Skipper's always in there with the door locked."

"What is he doing?" King Julien asked with narrowed eyes and a wide grin. "Looking at nuddy girls?"

"That is not likely!" Private replied defensively. "That sort of behavior is totally unlike Skipper!"

"Isn't the spewing of swear words also totally unlike Skipper?"

"Well, yes; but we're trying to help him!"

"So, why haven't you?"

Private fell silent. He didn't want to tell King Julien of what he, Kowalski, and Rico were doing inside of doing research. It wasn't the activity they did that was worthy of ridicule, it was the fact that the three penguins did not take any major actions to negotiate Skipper into unlocking the office door that would get them chastised by the other animals. The young penguin was ready to explode but he forced himself to resist the urge to yell and use violence against the lemur. Not only would he step out of the boundaries of his normal character, he would also wake up some or all of the sleeping animals and cause a more disastrous fight that would possibly end with someone being seriously injured.

Seeing how incensed Private was, Kowalski answered King Julien's question with his own explanation. "Because we have no access to the internet," he stated; "we've tried to look for books on animal behavior since there should be some present in a zoo, but we've not found any of the sort- at least, not any books that aren't specifically for children's education."

To his relief, King Julien nodded his head and said, "That is a very reasonable answer. Even though I still think we should scrub Skipper's mouth with soap, if the rehab thingy is in high demand, I shall not wage war on my subjects."

The penguins rolled their eyes. Everyone in the circus disliked the way King Julien acted like he was still a king, even after he left his kingdom in Madagascar with Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman when they tried to fly on a poorly constructed plane to New York City, which ended with them crash landing in Africa. Everything that happened between the aftermath of the crash and the moment they now stand in did not need to be explained, neither did the lemur's behavior because it remained the same. The only difference was, despite his childish belief of superiority, King Julien managed to find love with the circus' motorbike riding bear Sonya. No one needed to question how; just looking at the bizarre way the two bonded was enough to explain that Sonya actually admired King Julien's stupidity and King Julien loved her for her "exotic beauty".

Just before the penguins could waddle away, they were stopped again by King Julien. "If I can ask you a question if I may, have you noticed the love cloud over the kitties?" he asked.

"I beg your pardon?" Kowalski inquired as he, Private, and Rico looked over their shoulders.

King Julien repeated his question. "The love cloud over the kitties; do you not see it?"

"I don't get what you're saying," Kowalski said.

"Perhaps he's talking about Alex and Gia," Private suggested.

"I am talking about Alex and Gia," said King Julien. "Did you not see the way they hug and kiss each other? Did you not see how Mr. Alex made his spotted lover's misery go away in one morning? There is a big cloud of love over them, I say, and it is clear what must be done."

"What's that?" Private asked with a bit of interest.

"You do not know?" King Julien questioned. "Do you tend to go blind and deaf on occasions? If you do, can you tell me how I can do it?"

Kowalski, who had quickly become irritated by the lemur's ridiculous and unnecessary questions, yelled as quietly as he possibly could: "Can you tell us what must be done with Alex and Gia, please?!"

King Julien, not affected by Kowalski raised voice, smiled and announced, "The time has come for Alex and Gia to get married!"

There was about ten seconds of silence before one of the penguins finally gave a response.

"You want Alex and Gia to get married?" Private inquired.

"Who wouldn't want Alex and Gia to get married?" King Julien questioned. "Seriously, who wouldn't? Do you know, 'cause I don't."

"Julien, that's ridiculous," Kowalski said. "Everyone here knows that the only way for them to get married is for Alex to propose to Gia."

King Julien nodded. "That is the way people tell other people they are ready to get married," he said; "so I'll make sure they tell us they are ready to get married."

The penguins couldn't argue with the lemur; he had already disappeared into the tree of his enclosure to get some sleep and scheme various attempts to get Alex to propose to Gia so they could get married. Kowalski wasn't in the mood to quarrel with King Julien anyway, so he told Private and Rico that he was going to turn in for the night and they should too. On the way to their secret apartment in Stefano's enclosure, Private spoke his mind about Alex and Gia's relationship and how magical it would be to see the two trapeze artists become husband and wife, but agreed that a wedding would only occur after Alex asked Gia for her paw in matrimony, not after the couple gave in to King Julien's childish nagging. This prompted Kowalski to instantly come up with a plan to prevent King Julien from doing what he intended to do. Before retiring to bed, he told Private and Rico that they would advise all the circus animals (with the obvious exception of the lemurs) in the morning to keep an eye on the lemurs so they don't cause into any trouble.

True to his word, the very next day, Private and Rico accompanied Kowalski as he visited each animal enclosure when everyone was awake and inform them about King Julien. They made no mention of Alex and Gia or a possible wedding, but the penguins did tell the animals that it was important to make sure that King Julien, Maurice, and Mort were in their enclosure at all times. As expected, everyone inquired them why they were being asked to watch the lemur trio and Kowalski would reply with "Julien's been getting a little bored and we're worried that he would cause damage to the zoo". The animals accepted the fabricated explanation and agreed to keep an eye on King Julien.

When it came time to advise Alex and Gia about King Julien, the penguins quickly rehearsed their scripted lines for the upcoming conversation they were about to have with the felines. Considering that their relationship was the reason for their course of action, the penguins had to plan their chat with Alex and Gia early on so they wouldn't raise suspicion or expose King Julien's suggested plan which would produce a negative response from the couple. Luckily everything went well and neither the lion or jaguar spotted or detected the anxiety in the three penguins during the discussion.

Kowalski, Private, and Rico were certain that they had prevented King Julien from producing a major calamity. On the account of King Julien's past history, however, the penguins had installed a fragile pillar under the animals' alliance with the ring-tailed lemur and the entire structure was now in the position to collapse.

It only took three days before everyone was totally antagonistic toward King Julien. In the hours after they were informed by the penguins about the lemur, the entire circus kept a sharp eye on the lemurs' enclosure. Whenever King Julien couldn't be seen anywhere on the ground or in the tree, the animal who was surveying his enclosure would get concerned and then greatly choleric. Things took a bad turn when everyone began calling out his name when he didn't appear after a few minutes. The animal in question would yell out for the lemur until he would come out from wherever he was. King Julien didn't understand why everyone was being a nuisance to him, neither did Maurice or Mort, and it infuriated them to no end.

Alex and Gia were the only animals in the zoo who did not participate in monitoring and yelling at the lemurs. They believed that it was unnecessary for them to get involved because the lemurs' enclosure was far from their's and they thought it was nonessential for the whole circus to keep a close watch on King Julien. It was true that the lion and jaguar did agree with the penguins' concerns about the bratty, hyperactive lemur; after thinking it over, they strongly disagreed with their views due to everyone's deplorable behavior towards all three lemurs. They especially felt sorry for Maurice and Mort who were innocent and didn't deserve the intolerable treatment they were forced to endure. Not to mention that it was getting exceedingly annoying to hear everyone constantly holler King Julien's name, particularly at night while they were about to sleep.

The circus' abhorrent behavior towards the lemur trio had now reached its fourth day. Alex and Gia woke up that morning to Marty angrily demanding King Julien to make his presence known. When the zebra soon repeated his order to the lemur in a much louder voice, they guessed that King Julien was trying to block out the noise the best he could. Alex and Gia did their best to cover their own ears and get back to sleep but nothing they did worked.

When they heard Gloria's voice mixed in with Marty's voice, Gia finally lost her temper. She got out of bed, stormed straight into the enclosure, and shouted, "Are you both kidding me?! You choose the early morning to yell at the lemurs?! There are other animals who'd like to sleep, you know!"

"Well sorry for the wake up call!" Marty replied angrily. "We're just making sure that Julien's still in his tree!"

"Of course he's in his tree!" Gia snarled. "The reason he's not coming out because he's sick of your bad attitude!"

"Bad attitude?!" Gloria asked bitterly. "You think we've got bad attitude?! What about you? You're the one yelling at us!"

"Well at least I'm more thoughtful than you insensitive bastards!" Gia retorted.

"Why you God damn..."

Alex marched up to Gia's side and prevented Gloria from finishing her sentence. "Alright, everyone, stop!" he roared. "This yelling bullshit has gone long enough!"

"Why don't you tell that to Gia?!" Marty yelled. "She's the one who came out-"

"Gia didn't start it! You did!" Alex snapped, pointing a finger directly at the zebra.

Marty was ready to fire back with another heated remark but Alex stopped him before he could utter a single syllable.

"I don't need to hear what you have to say! No one does!" the lion snarled. "You all have no right to be so cruel to the lemurs; they did nothing wrong! I don't know why the penguins said what they said but that still doesn't mean you should take it seriously! Now go back to sleep and leave the lemurs alone, or else your ass won't be the only part of your body that has teeth marks!"

Marty and Gloria didn't reply and instead did what he ordered them to do. Once the zebra and hippo were out of sight, Alex and Gia turned around and ambled back into the secret house in their enclosure. While the lion was no longer exasperated, the jaguar was still apoplectic from the early morning quarrel.

"Can you believe those morons?!" a disgusted Gia asked. "First they yell at the lemurs and then they accuse me of starting the argument!"

"I know and I can't believe it either," Alex responded in a more calmer tone. "When we first got here, I thought everything was going to be just as it usually was. But thanks to those penguins, everything's going down the toilet!"

"Exactly!" Gia said. "God knows why they did this, but I'm praying that they'll eventually eat their words!"

"I agree with you, Gia," Alex replied. "But for now, let's try to calm down, okay?"

"Fine," Gia mumbled.

Amazingly, the rest of the morning went on without anyone else screaming at the lemurs which pleased Gia immensely. Seeing that his partner was gradually calming down, Alex decided to vanquish the rest of her vexation with the most affective weapon he could think of. At his request, Gia laid herself on her stomach and Alex commenced gently massaging her upper back. The lion knew that the jaguar was completely free from rage when his paws stroked her elegant fur and she purred in response.

The sight of Gia on the mattress and the sound of her in pleasure aroused Alex. He felt his body prepare itself to engage in sexual activity and he mentally panicked. While he continued to massage her back, Alex closed his eyes and imagined himself and Gia doing something that wasn't related to sex, like doing trapeze or playing in a gigantic ball pit. To his relief, it worked and his body temperature returned to its usual volume.

Directly after Alex finished massaging his partner, a zoo employee dropped by the enclosure and slid their breakfast through a small door. Alex and Gia were delighted to see that they had given chicken instead of ground beef. With the silence from the other animals and the change in breakfast, the felines felt a wonderful sensation spreading through their bodies and it was a clear indication that a splendid day was ahead of them.

Alex and Gia believed the day was going to be better, but the thought was instantly shattered when Kowalski called out for King Julien in a clearly incandescent voice. The penguin's shout was then joined by the loud, furious voices of the other animals, including Marty and Gloria.

"Oh, not again!" Gia said as she facepalmed.

Alex got up from his bed and placed a paw on Gia's shoulder. "I got an idea," he told the jaguar. "Let's go for a walk through the other part of the zoo and wait this out. What do you say?"

"That's a great idea," Gia replied, getting up on her feet. "But let's be careful not to bump into any zoo keepers."

"Definitely," Alex said as he opened the door to their enclosure.

With the clamour of the other animals far behind them, Gia immediately felt calm as she and Alex strolled peacefully through the indoor zoo. Alex smiled seeing that his girlfriend was no longer incensed because of everyone's hatred towards the lemurs. Throughout their walk, they didn't encounter a single zoo employee which increased their time in marveling at the sights they passed, including a display of exotic flowers and a gallery of photos of various animals that had been in the zoo years before them.

At one point, Alex and Gia noticed a large playground to their left. The whole structure was made to resemble a jungle with three giant trees and also included six large sculptures of wild animals on the ground; there was a lion, a kangaroo, a giant panda, a blue-and-gold macaw, a crocodile, and an orangutan. As the lion and jaguar approached the playground, they spotted several remarkable types of recreational equipment that heightened their exhilaration- two zip-lines above an extensive safety net, a colossal pyramid-shaped jungle gym, four spring riders in the form of different animals, and an enormous maze that seemingly led to a hidden place in the structure.

The instant Alex and Gia stepped under the rope bridge, their inner child could no longer be contained. It emerged from the lion and jaguar bit by bit. It started with Gia taking another step ahead of Alex; and then Alex took another step ahead of Gia. After they each took three turns taking a step ahead of their partner, Gia raced into the maze with Alex childishly pursuing her. Following the sound of the jaguar's laughter, the lion dashed through the narrow pathways. Whenever he was sure that Gia was around the corner Alex would end up bumping into a dead-end, and then he would have to go back the way he came from and go down the next path.

There came a point when Alex couldn't hear Gia laughing. He guessed that she had made it to the end of the maze and was now outside waiting for him. Being as quiet as a mouse, the lion slowly ambled through the rest of the maze and eventually reached the exit, which itself led to a staircase inside the tree-like structure. Alex grinned as he was absolutely sure that Gia was waiting at the top of the stairs so he could chase her again. Stepping towards the first step leading up, Gia was indeed at the top and she instantly darted off, giggling all the while.

"Oh yeah?!" Alex called out as he picked up speed. "You think you'll get that far?!"

Gia and Alex raced up the second spiral staircase and dashed across the rope bridge. The jaguar noticed that the lion was gaining on her so she hurried to the tube slide, took a seat on the top, and waited for her boyfriend to catch up. A second later, Alex reached Gia and pushed her down the slide. Gia shrieked in excitement as she slid down the slide and safely landed on her feet.

The instant she got up and moved away from the slide, Alex's voice thundered through the tube. "LOOK OUT BELOW!"

In less than five seconds, Alex had popped out of the slide, ran up and grabbed Gia by her waist, and spun himself around. Gia laughed once more as the spin came to an end and Alex walked over to an artificial rock and sat her on top of it. Alex took a seat by her right side.

"That was exhilarating!" Gia said as she panted like a dog.

"Yeah," Alex replied completely out of breath. "Totally electrifying."

"Isn't it great to feel like a cub again?" Gia asked.

"Yep; it sure is," Alex responded, nodding his head in agreement.

Alex stared deep into the twinkling, light brown eyes of Gia and their noses soon touched. Two warm smiles appeared on the muzzles of the lion and jaguar as they rubbed noses in a mouthless, tender kiss.

Their moment of bliss was once again interrupted by an animal speaking. This time, the voice was high-pitched and spoke in a whisper, and it was silenced by another voice, one Alex and Gia immediately recognized. The duo of voices came from the giant panda sculpture. Alex and Gia quickly but cautiously marched over to the huge statue and, sure enough, they discovered King Julien, Maurice, and Mort hiding behind it. When the lemur trio gazed up at the lion and jaguar, three pairs of orange eyes expanded and the pupils within them shrunk.

King Julien, hoping to talk his way out of trouble, waved to Alex and Gia and said, "Umm...hello, kitties."

"Julien, what are you and your friends doing here?" Alex inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"I can't take it anymore!" King Julien whined. "I cannot stand everybody yelling at me and insulting me! Maurice and Mort cannot stand it either!"

Mort nodded his head. He then ran up to Alex and cried, "Do not send us back there! Please, have mercy on us! No more yelling! No more insulting! No more I beg you!"

Mort laid flat on the floor and began to bawl his eyes out. At sight of this, Gia bent down, picked up the mouse lemur and held him in her paw. She commenced caressing the fur on the back of Mort's head the same way a person would pet the feathers on the head of a cockatoo. "There there, little Mort," Gia said softly. "There's no need to cry. Alex and I will tell everyone to stop yelling at you guys."

Mort sniffled and asked, "You will?"

"Absolutely," Gia replied. She turned to the lion next to her. "Right, Alex?" she asked.

"Sure," said Alex. Then he looked down at King Julien. "Just a few questions before we head back. Have you been bored since we got here?"

"No," King Julien answered firmly. Then his eyes went to the ground as he said, "Well, okay, maybe a teensy little bit, but not much that I would go so crazy that I would bring the house down!"

If the other circus animals had heard King Julien's statement, they would immediately and fiercely object. Everyone, including Alex and Gia, could easily bring up at three or four instances from the past that were the result of the lemur's unsophisticated and reckless behavior.

While he was undoubtedly skeptical, Alex had a feeling in his gut that King Julien was telling the truth. "Are you being honest?" the lion questioned.

"Mr. Alex, I am the most honest I have ever been in all of my entire life," King Julien replied, dropping to his knees while still staring at Alex.

Even though the lemur's statement and simultaneous action would be instantly ruled as false, Alex and Gia identified pure sincerity in King Julien's voice.

"It's clear to me and Alex that you're telling us the truth, Julien," Gia stated. "The penguins have told a lie and managed to turn the whole circus against you, and your companions have been forced to suffer as well."

King Julien gave Gia a sad nod. "Why must it be me who must always suffer?" he asked. "Even when I haven't made plans for extravagant parties, everyone assumes I'm going to do something bad! Has the world gone mad?!"

"Actually, your highness," Maurice said walking up to King Julien; "there may be a legitimate reason for all this. After all, you did say you wanted Alex and Gia here to-"

Maurice was abruptly cut off when a frightened King Julien slapped a hand over his mouth. This unfortunately wasn't enough to quell the suspicion in the lion and jaguar who towered over him- the suspicion which had now shifted into another direction.

"You want Alex and I to do what?" Gia inquired the ring-tailed lemur.

King Julien smiled and chuckled nervously as he tried desperately to come up with an exceptional excuse.

"Julien, what did you say that had the penguins turn everyone against you?" Alex calmly demanded.

Realising that it was his only option to avoid an additional scolding, King Julien sighed and explained everything to Alex and Gia. "I saw how deeply in love you and Gia were and I wanted to help you move your relationship up a notch."

Alex and Gia stared at King Julien in shock. Then they looked at each other with the same expression. Out of all the things that came out of the lemur's mouth, it was his plot to strengthen their relationship that was not only surprising but also moderately intrigued the lion and jaguar. Neither feline knew why King Julien's statement made them curious, yet it was clear that the purpose of his plan had a much broader definition than what anyone else could determine, and chances were that the penguins must've had some sort of knowledge of this and regarded it as another one of his stupid excuses to get himself out of trouble.

Mort, who Gia still held in her paw, looked up at the jaguar and said, "King Julien knows about the big cloud of love over your heads. He saw Mr. Alex cure you of your misery in one whole morning!"

Gia felt embarrassed as did Alex, who actually glanced up to see if there was a "big cloud of love" over them. Obviously there wasn't and the lion blushed in humiliation.

"Are you saying you want Alex and I to be mates?" Gia inquired King Julien. "Mates as in 'husband and wife'?"

"Yes," King Julien replied. "That's all I wanted to do, make your lives better. You and Mr. Alex are the greatest image of a lovely couple, not just the greatest kitty trapeze artists in the world."

"We're flattered, Julien," said Alex. "You are right that Gia and I are both excellent trapeze artists and a wonderful couple, but marriage is something Gia and I have to consider. It's nice that you told us how you feel about our relationship, but that doesn't mean we should run off and get married in a heartbeat. Gia and I will need time to think about it. Okay?"

"That's what the penguins told me," sighed a downcast King Julien. "I should have listened to them. I have failed. I am such an ass."

Maurice walked over to King Julien and patted his back. "Don't get too worked up, your majesty," the Aye Aye said. "You had a good idea in motion, but you didn't stop to think about it that much. Things like this happens to everybody."

This did not cheer King Julien up at all. He stood erect on his feet with his head hanging in shame.

Maurice looked up at Alex and Gia and asked, "By any chance could you get the others to stop yelling at us?"

"Absolutely," Alex replied. "In order for Gia and I to think about the future, we need total peace and quiet."

"Come on, let's head back," Gia suggested, motioning for King Julien and Maurice to come forward. "Alex and I will give you a lift."

Alex took King Julien in one paw and Maurice in the other. Before anyone knew it, Mort jumped out of Gia's paw and landed on top of King Julien, knocking off his crown, which extremely infuriated him.

"Mort, what the fuckity-fuck is wrong with..." King Julien was rudely interrupted as Mort suddenly dropped himself and grabbed him by the ankles. "MORT, DO NOT TOUCH THE ROYAL FEET!"

Gia immediately took ahold of Mort and ordered him to let go of King Julien's feet. The mouse lemur obeyed and the jaguar turned around and started for the enclosures with the lion following a few steps behind. All three lemurs were afraid of the upcoming, enraged reaction of the other circus animals once they saw them. Alex and Gia reassured them that they would straighten things out so no one would yell at them anymore.

During the walk back to the main animal exhibit, Alex took note of the exotic flower display he and Gia had noticed while they were walking through the zoo. The colors of all the flowers were eye-catching and truly gave the flowers their splendor. It reminded him of the first time he saw Gia, heard her voice, felt her touch. Memories of the past year and a half hit him like a tsunami wave, all of which were mostly trapeze rehearsals and performances but a few memories of other moments with Gia were present, such as the time when they went for a swim at a lake with the other animals. Alex snickered as he remembered that Gloria tried to use the tire swing and the branch supporting the rope snapped off the instant the hippo's weight left the ground. Of course the lion tried to keep his laughter low since Gia was just as scared as Melman was when the incident happened. Gloria wasn't severely hurt but everyone was immensely concerned when they saw her tumble into the shallow water of the shore.

The semi-funny memory faded away as Alex started to look back on the events that had occurred with the month. He and Gia finally confessed their love for each other and shared their first kiss. It was that exact moment when a damper was placed on Gia, sending her into a terrible depression. Alex consoled his girlfriend and successful persuaded her to explain what was troubling her. Gia's back-story alone was heart-breaking, but when she revealed a new phobia that had developed over the course of a single night, Alex believed that he was the cause of it all. People would argue that Alex was only feeling exceedingly sorry for Gia; even so, the lion was aware that his desire for sex always popped up whenever he spotted the jaguar in a pose his eyes would dub seductive. He made a vow to keep his fantasies under control and his passionate words brought tears to Gia's eyes. If he were to break his wholehearted promise and inflict any more sorrow onto his companion, their relationship would certainly be history.

Alex continued to follow Gia back to the animal enclosures with King Julien and Maurice in his paws. He specifically told the ring-tailed lemur that the progression of the relation he and Gia shared was private and did not require anyone else's help; in spite of that, Alex couldn't help but think that perhaps the lemur had some good suggestions on how to upgrade their relationship. The only other source of information he could think of besides himself and King Julien was romance novels and movies. He didn't have the accurate patience for something that tedious, so the notion of watching an innumerable amount of films and reading a ton of books was dropped then and there.

With the exhibit now a few steps away, Alex came to the conclusion that the next phase in his and Gia's relationship would be determined only by good judgement and appropriate conduct. He was usually a quick-witted thinker, able to come up with several excellent solutions to a little disagreement between friends or a much larger problem whenever one emerged in the circus. The task of persuading the other animals to cease their animosity toward King Julien would be easy; and once it was done and out of the way, Alex could focus on his task of helping the love between him and Gia blossom. As long as everything with their friends went well, everything with his elegant girlfriend would go just as smoothly and would result in a wonderful outcome.


	8. Chapter 8

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Three things you should know before reading. 1) Due to a lot of stress I've been going through, I haven't been writing that much. So, please, try to tone down the begging for more chapters; they'll come at their own pace. 2) There's a small joke I put in about a particular city in Europe. I only added it in for laughs, I don't mean to be offensive to anyone; if someone does get offended, I dearly apologize. 3) You might get disappointed towards the end of this chapter for reasons I completely understand, but I'm just following the website's protocol about M-rated fanfics. If you still get disappointed, don't complain about it in the Review section and wait for the next chapter; and if you can't wait, use your imagination (believe me, it'll work).

From the cloud-filled sky came an endless yet beautiful cascade of snow. Everything outside was white with snow- the ground, the tree branches, the paths that went past the zoo and the one bench situated behind a frozen pond. Alex and Gia saw it all as they sat close on a rectangular crate and gazed at the glamorous winter scene from the window near the exotic flower display. The room's fluorescent lights were turned off; Alex did this so he and Gia could have a little privacy and a better view of the falling snow.

"It's so beautiful," said Gia.

"So magnificent," Alex added. "So amazing."

"Do remember seeing this in New York?" Gia asked.

"From what I saw from my enclosure in ole Central Park Zoo," Alex replied; "winter in New York was always spectacular. Just seeing it snow over the skyscrapers and down onto Central Park made me excited for the holidays that would follow, and the excitement within me would make me so hyper that I would spin and dance and-"

"Slip on some ice and break my ass," Gia added humorously, trying to mimic the lion's voice.

Alex chuckled before saying, "Very funny, Gia; like it never happened to you."

"Actually it did," Gia responded.

"Only once?"

"Only once, when Vitaly, Stefano, and I were skating down a frozen river in Russia. How about you?"

"Me?"

"Yes."

Alex looked down in embarrassment and said, "Eight times."

Gia tried to contain her laughter by slapping a paw over her mouth. That didn't do any good and she ended up snickering until she was able to regain her composure.

"You fell on your butt eight times?" the jaguar asked.

"Yes," the lion responded. "What's even more humiliating is that it always happened in the same spot."

Gia didn't laugh but grinned from ear to ear. Alex took the opportunity to get back at his lover. "You said you fell on your butt once. What happened? Tell me in full detail."

Gia wasn't amused. She didn't like it when someone would be cheeky around her, especially when that particular person or animal would end up suffering some misfortune related to what they were saying or doing. Nonetheless, she thought it was fair if Alex heard her own experience of slipping on ice and falling on her rear.

"Like I said, I was with Vitaly and Stefano," Gia explained. "We were somewhere in Northern Russia when the train had accidentally started off without us. There was a frozen river that led to a low bridge and Stefano came up with the idea to skate down it to reunite with the circus. I remember we were almost to the bridge when I slipped and, well, fell on my ass. Vitaly helped me back up and we flagged down the train."

"So you, Vitaly, and Stefano went on a few adventures too?" Alex asked, thinking about the adventures he, Marty, Gloria, and Melman had before they came to the circus.

"Yeah, but only a few," Gia replied. "They were nothing extraordinary."

"Like what?"

"Well, one time in Zagreb, the three of us wandered onto a tram and Stefano actually got it to move. We spent the next hour riding through the city. I also remember in Athens, we found ourselves in a stone theater at the Acropolis- I think that's what it's called -and we made up our own play. Oh, and I remember when we were in Amsterdam, we got lost in this weird part of the city where sex advertisements were everywhere and a coffee shop we passed was full of smoke."

Alex wasn't sure how to respond to the part about Amsterdam. He and his friends had never been to the Dutch capital and all the facts he heard about the city were from animated TV shows that aired late at night. In spite of the obscene and obviously offensive jokes told on those shows that were unbelievably accepted as "humorous", Alex was still convinced that such an area existed in the Netherlands. After all, the United States has many sin cities of its own, including Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Los Angeles.

Just to be sure that the jaguar wasn't making any derogatory jokes, the lion asked, "Did you still enjoy your little adventure there?"

"Of course, Alex," Gia replied. "All the adventures I had with Vitaly and Stefano were so much fun, even if we got in some sort of trouble along the way or in the end. And, don't get me wrong, there were a couple things about the places we went to that were a bit off, but, all in all, every city and town our adventures took place in were amazing. Have you ever since Paris or Rome at night? When the entire city is lit up?"

"I've seen pictures and they're incredible," said Alex.

"Exactly," said Gia. "No matter what city it is or what country it's located in, it's always a sight."

"No matter the weather?" Alex asked.

"No matter the weather," Gia replied with a nod.

The lion's pair of blue eyes met the jaguar's pair of light brown eyes once again. The felines passionately gazed into their partner's eyes, enchanted by the hue of their irises and how their eyes twinkled in the dim light. As they continued to gaze lovingly at each other, Alex and Gia gave one another a romantic smile. They desired to kiss but resisted for whatever reason. If they did, they would truly relive the events of the previous Sunday, when they finally took their relationship to the next level.

Slowly and romantically, the lion and jaguar embraced. Alex's paws wrapped around Gia's back as they nuzzled their muzzles together; and when they broke away ten seconds later, the felines extended their left arms out and their left paws touched. Alex and Gia didn't have to look down to increase the sense of love. Without breaking eye contact, the couple molded their paws into fists and pressed them together so their rings could touch. They weren't fancy rings nor were they expensive rings, as if to say they were made of gold or held a beautiful diamond. The rings were actually made of different material instead of metal. That didn't really matter to Alex and Gia. As long as the rings fit, they had said, they were fine with it. What made their rings especially unique were that they held an artificial, colorful flower on top in place of a precious stone.

Anyone would say that their finger-worn jewelry was cheaply made, but Alex and Gia still wouldn't care. For them, the design of the rings symbolized how much their love had blossomed. The seed of romance had been planted during their first trapeze rehearsal nearly two years ago. At the time "Trapeze Americano" was a fake circus act Alex made up so he and his friends could get home to New York, so he was literally inventing his act and Gia, fuelled by her desire to become a trapeze artist, simply replicated the lion's moves, no matter how ridiculous they were.

After Alex and his pals joined the circus permanently, their friendship grew but they never said or did anything to start a dalliance. They did have meals together, with their friends nearby occasionally engaging in conversation and killing off any sense of romance. So when they finally admitted their love for each other, the love Alex and Gia felt was wonderful, and, in their opinion, the colors of the artificial flowers represented that feeling not only on the night of their last show before winter, but the day they finally tied the knot.

It was five days ago, on a slightly chilly Sunday. The circus animals had set up the wedding in the playground area. White curtains concealed the sturdy crates which were used as chairs. There was also a tall stepstool near one of the curtains. It was for King Julien, who was- believe it or not -the minister. While there was heavy criticism, everyone decided not to protest after seeing the normally bratty, childish lemur change his behavior in preparation for the big day.

Though anyone would think that this reason was completely mediocre, the animals allowed King Julien to be the minister for another reason: he had inspired Alex to propose to Gia. When everyone learned that he wanted to help the lion and jaguar move forward in their relationship, they became supportive of the idea but all agreed that it was Alex who would make the first move; and that's exactly what happened.

Two weeks before the first snowfall, Alex addressed the animals about how injudicious they were to victimize the lemurs on account of a fib told by the penguins. He stated that no matter how incompatible any of them could get, they all had to remember that they were still family and all future dilemmas would be solved together. To the lion's satisfaction, everyone agreed with him and promised to act appropriately to any problem that would occur in the future. He also made sure that Kowalski, Private, and Rico apologized for their wrongdoing.

That same day, Alex gave a second speech to Gia about how far they had gotten in their relationship and how being with her was the greatest thing to happen in his entire life. All of his endearing words warmed the jaguar's heart, and tears came to her eyes when he got down on one knee, took her paws in his, and concluded his speech with: "I feel tenderness in my heart when you're around, and I believe that's the same with you. If that's true, Gia, will you allow the tenderness to thrive forever? Will you be my mate?"

Gia responded by hugging Alex tightly and repeating the word "yes" in a euphoric voice slightly affected by her crying tears of joy.

Directly after Gia accepted Alex's proposal, preparations for the wedding commenced. Usually, it would take months for a wedding to be finalized. The ecstatic circus animals did it all in ten days. Actually, it was done in a week. The reason it took an extra three days was that King Julien wanted ceremony rehearsals. No one argued this time; they knew that everything had to be perfect for the happy couple on their wedding day.

When the big day finally came, everything was in place and the ceremony was to start at noon. Alex was fairly nervous as he got himself ready. Marty, who served as his best man, noticed his anxiety and reassured him for the second time that everything would be just fine. The lion took a deep breath before Marty escorted him to his place next to King Julien's stepstool and the service began.

As Mason and Phil played music on an electric piano, Alex still felt butterflies in his stomach. He was afraid that something might occur that would disrupt the atmosphere of his and Gia's wedding; specifically, he feared that he might mess something up, like accidentally knocking something or someone over or letting out a small burp. The only way his fears would've gotten the better of him was if Maurice and Mort hadn't appeared, tossing flower petals into the air as they strolled through the aisle.

A moment later, everyone directed their attention to the curtains the duo had walked out from as the chimps began to play "Here Comes the Bride". Alex straightened himself as Vitaly and Gia stepped out. Everyone (especially Alex) was in awe at the sight of the bride, who wore a gorgeous white gown with shades of pink and held a beautiful bouquet, half of the flowers were pink and the other half were white. Vitaly walked Gia down the aisle and, after the jaguar was in her place beside the lion, the tiger took his seat and the ceremony continued.

As King Julien delivered a sermon about love and matrimony, Alex felt his anxiety die down. The ring-tailed lemur's words were making him think of the positive aspects of marrying the feline he loved. If Alex hadn't lectured the animals about their wrongdoing, everyone would call him crazy for assuming that King Julien's oration had relieved him of his worries. All the same, Alex believed that- even when the lemur was the one who delivered the sermon -the removal of his anxiety was done by God himself. It was a religious assumption, and the lion's belief was at its strongest.

The rest of the ceremony went on just as it had been rehearsed numerous times, without an interruption or intrusion. Alex and Gia exchanged wedding vows and received their rings from Maurice and Mort. King Julien concluded the ceremony with another statement about love, which was tolerably short, and Alex and Gia finally kissed, triggering a splendid acclamation from the jubilant circus animals.

The reception was held at sunset. For Alex and Gia, it was just as magnificent as their first trapeze performance and first kiss combined. They were honored to start the celebration off with the first dance. The lion and jaguar seemed to know how to dance to the romantic song being played; that's how good they were in their friends' opinion. No one joined them on the dance floor until the first song had ended and the applause had subsided. Besides the bride and groom, there were only two couples who danced- Melman and Gloria, and King Julien and Sonya. Marty could've joined in but, since there were three horses and one of him, he decided stand and chat with the rest of the guests.

After the dancing, everyone sat down to eat. All the food at the reception was basically what the animals had been eating since their first day at the indoor zoo, but was made into a special dish for the occasion- there was chicken francese, borscht, a fancy salad, and two enormous platters of fruit and shrimp.

Before anyone started eating, Vitaly stood up and proposed a toast to Alex and Gia. Marty wasn't sure what to say in his speech, and Gloria, being Gia's maid of honor and all, didn't have the time to write one; so they allowed Vitaly to use their ideas for the toast to the couple. All glasses were raised and soon there were sounds of them clinking together.

Everyone made sure their stomaches weren't full as there was still dessert- the wedding cake. Alex and Gia cut the first two slices and served each other a fork full of the sweet dessert. It was another moment that Private made sure was photographed so he could make a photo album for the happy couple.

Once everyone who wanted a slice had one, the animals continued to chat among themselves. At one point, a comment Marty made in reference to the past caused Alex to laugh and he unexpectedly extended his arm out. His fork collided with the left side of Gia's face, smearing vanilla frosting on her cheek.

Instantly after realizing what had happened, Alex placed his plate on the table and apologized to his bride. Gia smiled and told her mate: "It's okay, Alex. You did that by accident."

A reassured Alex reached over to grab a couple napkins from the table. While he was doing so, Gia took a paw-ful of cake and smudged it on the right side of the lion's face. This caused everyone to laugh in surprise as Gia said humorously: "I did that on purpose."

Alex chuckled as he and Gia waited for Private to snap the photo before cleaning their faces.

The reception wrapped up when Alex and Gia departed for their enclosure. Before they left, Gia removed the garter on her left leg and gave it to Alex. This grabbed everyone's attention; they had no idea what the newly weds were up to. Curiosity turned to excitement as Gia got in position and threw her bouquet over her shoulders. The bridesmaids scrambled to catch it. Gloria successfully grabbed the bouquet as it fell towards her. Alex threw Gia's garter over his shoulders and it landed on one of Melman's ears. The hippo and giraffe shared a light-hearted laugh as they perceived the bouquet and garter was a good omen, a sign that their relationship would one day move to the next level just as the lion and jaguar's romance had, in spite of the obvious fact that they were both of a different species.

Alex and Gia spent the rest of the night in their enclosure, snuggled together in bed. Alex had shifted the two mattresses together a week prior so it would be easy for them to sleep side by side. The newly weds nuzzled and giggled one another before they kissed good night and drifted off to sleep.

Though it did not happen physically, having Gia close to him in bed titillated Alex. The sense of lust was not strong enough to overpower him and ruin the moment, and he surely thanked God for it. There was no way he could ever persuade his mate to engage in sex with him, especially after their wedding. Alex knew all-too well why, and, once again, he thanked God for keeping his urges under control.

The recollection of their wedding day was a pure delight. Alex and Gia reminisced the euphoria they felt at the conclusion of the ceremony and all throughout the reception. They could still sense it in their hearts. It had not aged in the five days of their union and that was what made it the most endearing.

Gia glanced at the window, then to Alex, and asked him: "Do you want to head back to the playground?"

"Why? Are you getting bored watching the snow fall?" Alex in turn inquired.

"Not exactly," Gia told the lion. "Watching snow fall is a beautiful sight, but I think that the playground would make our honeymoon more exhilarating."

Though he nodded in agreement, Alex had little interest in having the playground as their honeymoon destination. He was sure Gia felt the same way.

"If only we had some money," the lion sighed; "then we could be somewhere romantic, like an island in the Caribbean, a hotel in Paris, or maybe a resort in Florida."

"I've always wanted to go to the Caribbean," the jaguar said. "Everyone says it's full of wonders and excitement. If we could go there, I would like to go to Jamaica or the Bahamas."

"My choice would be Saint Lucia," said Alex. "Gloria showed me pictures of it and the island itself is one big jungle with beautiful beaches; it's the true definition of paradise."

"I would not doubt it," Gia replied. "Shall we get back to the playground?"

"Alright," Alex strolled ahead of Gia and kindly opened the door for Gia. "After you."

"Thank you," Gia said as she walked past her mate.

When the couple arrived at the playground, they instantly noticed a picnic basket in the center of the area. Obviously their friends had made them something to eat and brought the basket to the playground while they were out watching the beauty of weather at its finest. On top of the basket was a red-and-white checked blanket. Whoever came up with the idea went all out in making sure that the meal they had prepared would be enjoyed in style.

Alex laid the blanket on the floor while Gia opened the basket and set the food out. To their surprise, all that was in the basket were lightly salted crackers, slices of cheddar cheese and salami, and two water bottles. It wasn't what they were expecting, but since everyone was doing something nice for them, they decided not to think anything of it.

"This makes a delightful snack," Gia remarked as she placed a slice of meat and cheese onto a cracker.

"Yeah, definitely," Alex said as he assembled a tiny sandwich. "This might be basic, be it's still classic and, as you said, delightful."

"I appreciate everyone going through the trouble of doing nice things for us," Gia said; "but, personally, I think that everything they did for our wedding is enough."

"That I have no trouble in agreeing with," Alex replied; "especially how King Julien changed his attitude when he was the minister."

Gia's mouth was full so she nodded.

They had a swing of water before continuing their conversation. This time the subject had changed. Their minds were now set on the only animal in the circus who was not in attendance at their wedding: Skipper.

"Do you think anything's being done to help Skipper?" Alex inquired.

"Don't ask me," Gia responded. "No one told me anything about him. In fact, everyone seems to have pushed Skipper out of their thoughts entirely."

"I sure hope not," said Alex. "If everyone continues to ignore him, the rest of our tour is going straight to hell."

"I hope that never happens," Gia replied. "In order to help Skipper, though, we'll have to plan another meeting with the other animals. Do you think they'll even listen?"

"I'm praying to God that they do," Alex stated. "We all dislike Skipper's foul-temper, and the only way to get rid of it is to help him. I'm highly positive that we'll be able to get our point across and get the old Skipper back. But first, we have to come up with a well written, passionate speech to convince everyone to take part in Skipper's rehabilitation course."

"Right," Gia said with a nod.

Anyone would think that Alex and Gia would've started working on their persuasive speech immediately. However, since they were on their "honeymoon", they made a mental note to begin work on the speech as soon as possible. The felines packed up the leftovers, placed it in the basket, and laid themselves on the blanket. It was true that they spent a good thirty minutes sitting on a crate watching the weather outside, but still, after spending the whole morning playing on the equipment, it felt great to kick back and relax. The lion and jaguar felt too relaxed, and, despite having no pillows or blankets, they fell asleep.

"Alex," a voice with a British accent whispered into the lion's ear. "Alex, wake up."

Alex stirred for a moment before pivoting his head to his right. He saw Private standing next to him and yawned before saying, "Hey there, Private. What's up?"

"I hate to interrupt your honeymoon," Private said; "but I would like to inform you that everything you requested for tonight is in the staff lounge."

"Great," Alex replied. "Thanks for telling me."

"No problem," said Private. "By the way, are you sure things will be alright between the two of you. Kowalski and I went through Gia's medical file and...well..."

Alex sighed. "I know, Private. Gia told me herself. Even when I know what she went through and what she's scared of, I want to know what it feels like to have sex, just once. At the same time, I'm afraid something might go wrong and I'll regret it forever."

"Sex is a very big issue whether or not you're in a relationship," Private responded; "and in this very rare case, an unplanned pregnancy isn't your biggest problem. It's the condition of Gia's...'private parts'...when you insert your...um...when you're 'performing the procedure'. We did buy lubricant but, at the very least, Alex, try to be careful."

"And if she says no, I'll understand," Alex stated. "When Gia's healthy and happy, I'm healthy and happy, and nothing Dick says will matter."

"Who's Dick?" Private inquired.

"Mine," Alex replied with a smirk.

Private stared at Alex in disapproval before turning around and waddling towards the exit. Alex immediately regretted it as he suddenly remembered what he and Gia wanted to do to help Skipper quit swearing. He was about to call out to Private but the doors closed with a thunderous slam. The lion quietly cursed himself for thinking that a crude pun was better than asking for advice.

Gia was awoken by the slamming doors. She sat up and gave Alex a startled look. "What on Earth was that?!" she demanded.

"Private dropped by and told me a few things," Alex stated.

"Did you tell him what we're planning to do?" Gia asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I kinda made a little joke that drove him off."

"Alex, it's very important that we help Skipper get clean, there's no reason for us to be cracking jokes about him!"

"It wasn't about Skipper!"

"Then what was the joke about?"

The question profoundly agitated Alex. Although his chat with Private had nothing to do with her in a negative manner, the lion still feared that, if he told the jaguar the topic of his recent conversation, she would get exceedingly upset, effectively ruining the rest of their honeymoon. He did his best to think of a good answer to lower the risk of an argument or meltdown from his mate. Nothing plausible came to mind.

Gia perceived Alex's apprehension and her ears immediately witted in disbelief. "Was the joke about me?"

Alex's eyes expanded in horror. "No! The joke wasn't about you!" he cried. "I would never make fun of you! Private and I were only talking about something special I wanted to do tonight- you know, because it's our honeymoon! I made plans for this days before we got married, and I wanted it to be special for you! Sure, this might end up as a hunk of shit, but I still wanted-"

Gia bopped Alex's nose to shut him up. The lion noted that the jaguar's facial expression had no hint of outrage or sorrow. She simply appeared to understand what he was trying to tell her.

"You wanted to do something special for me?" Gia asked. "As in a fancy dinner and romantic movie?"

"A fancy dinner, yes," Alex answered. "A romantic movie; well, that's a no-go."

"And you asked the penguins to do the shopping?" Gia questioned.

"Well, they're the ones who keep all the money we make," Alex replied. "So, they're the ones to go to when a situation like this pops up. Like I said, I wanted to add something special to our honeymoon since it'll only be for a day, which still isn't-"

"Alex," Gia said, preventing her mate from rambling; "your idea of a fancy dinner is sweet. But, be honest with me, is that all you had in mind?"

Alex bit his lip. This was the moment that discomposed him: telling Gia he wished to have sex. Like before, he first tried to think of a proper explanation to answer the jaguar's question; just like before, every statement he came up with was deemed unsuitable to say out loud.

Aware of how worried her mate was yet again, Gia decided to get it over with. She took a deep breath and, in a calm tone of voice, asked Alex: "You want to fuck me, don't you?"

"Half of me wants to, the other half says no," Alex responded in the same calm voice. "I know I used to stare at you or your ass and daydream, but, after you told me about your past, I started worrying that, if we do it, I might send you to the hospital."

"I admire you for acknowledging the condition of my...private parts," said Gia; "however, you shouldn't keep your feelings bottled up. I know you know that, but I still don't want you to get worked up or anything."

"Trust me, I know. It's just...I don't want to force you into another depression."

"I'm sure it won't happen again."

"Well, I still don't want you to be all miserable and blue. It's just not your normal character."

Gia cocked an eyebrow and grinned. "Oh really?"

"Really," said Alex. "Aside from having a sexy image, you're smart, independent, passionate, and quite chivalrous when the circus is in trouble."

Gia felt gratified by the words Alex used to describe her character. There were many times the circus (or a few circus animals) ran into some sort of trouble- which thankfully did not include the law -and she always encouraged everyone to keep going until a solution was conceived. She classified the words "passionate" and "chivalrous" as her top traits since she was never afraid to stand up for herself or her circus family. Alex learned that the hard way when he mocked Vitaly right in front of her.

"You're such a poet," Gia told Alex.

"It's not fiction when you know it's true," Alex replied with a chuckle.

"So, what was the joke about?" Gia inquired.

Anyone would think Alex would've been perturbed by the abrupt return of that particular question. He wasn't; he surprisingly felt a little confident that he could tell Gia what was on his mind, as long as he pondered if it was appropriate first.

"To make my answer short," the lion stated; "I'll tell you what I told Private. If you don't want to have sex, I understand why. When you're healthy and happy, I'm healthy and happy, and nothing Dick says will matter."

"Who's Dick?" Gia asked.

Alex only smirked. He didn't have to speak anyway. Gia instantly realized what she had said and covered her mouth. The two felines burst out laughing. "You naughty lion!" Gia guffawed as she playfully punched Alex's arm.

When the laughter ceased, Gia suggested they should have something to eat before heading back to their enclosure. Remembering his chat with Private, Alex told her there was food in the staff lounge. They gathered the picnic basket and blanket and made their way out of the playground area.

On the way to the staff lounge, the couple spotted a digital clock hanging on the wall. It was 5:34 PM. Alex and Gia weren't sure when they fell asleep, but given the fact that their friends had brought them food in a basket, they guessed it happened somewhere between noon and 1 o'clock. The assumption of sleeping for four hours in a frigid room without blankets was utterly absurd since the fur of lions and jaguars isn't as dense as the fur of snow leopards. Then again, the heating system might have been turned off before Private visited Alex; so there was at least one plausible explanation.

The staff lounge was more spacious than Alex and Gia had imagined it to be. They also didn't expect it to be so decorative. All four walls had a gorgeous mural, each depicting animals in their natural habitat- parrots flying through a jungle, cheetahs running through a savanna, dolphins leaping out of the ocean, and penguins in Antarctica. The sofas were a dark shade of green and the tables and chairs were painted various hues of brown.

Gia stood and admired the artwork of each mural while Alex went to the refrigerator and opened the freezer door. He took out the two frozen dinners and inspected them for what was in the packaging and how long it would take to heat up the meals. As he prepared dinner for him and his mate, Alex hoped that he could convince Gia to eat the salisbury steak and macaroni and cheese instead of the spaghetti and meatballs. It wasn't because the combination of Gia's accent and a widely known Italian dish sounded "stereotypical" to him. Alex simply felt uneasy with his mate dining on a meal whose name included the words "balls" and "meat" (which, in the English language, are often recognized as "suggestive" words).

Once both meals were properly cooked, Alex allowed them to cool as he set one of the tables. On each placemat, he laid a plastic knife and fork on a neatly folded napkin to the left side and placed a clear plastic cup on the top right corner. Gia walked over and remarked how he was trying to make a fancy impression of their meal. Alex gave his jaguar wife a warm smile before walking to the refrigerator and taking out a heavy jug of fruit punch. He filled the two cups with the drink, brought their food to the table, and the couple finally sat down and ate dinner.

Alex and Gia spent the next thirty minutes enjoying their meals and conversing about future states and cities the circus would visit during the American Tour. When they had finished and Alex cleaned up, the couple sat on one of the sofas and continued to chat. At one point, Gia commented how delicious the salisbury steak was, especially with the gravy it came with. This immediately brought up the awful incident that transpired the previous August when the penguins went out for a few hours and came back with two cartons inside a brown paper bag- one with a salad of some kind and the other loaded with french fries. Alex and Gia helped themselves to the fries and the salad was given to Gloria. Because of little grease and a fair amount of salt, the lion and jaguar didn't suffer the effects fast food could have on their digestive systems. The hippo on the other hand wasn't so lucky, and the subsequent calamity prompted the penguins and the chimps to add substandard toilets to every boxcar in the circus train.

The felines continued to talk about certain topics, predominately the plight of Skipper's mental health and how crucial it was to persuade the other animals to put their abhorrence aside and help him. A nearby clock allowed them to keep track of time. When it read 7:49, Alex decided that it was time to turn in. Right before he stood up, Gia abruptly got up and walked towards the kitchen area. Alex was confused what his mate was up to until she reached into a plastic bag, which had been left out in the open, and revealed a bottle of clear liquid with a pump dispenser. He knew exactly what it was and braced himself for another emotional interrogation.

Instead of questioning the lion why there was lubricant in the staff lounge, Gia studied the bottle's label before her eyes went to him. Alex anxiously ambled towards the jaguar, still fearing an imminent, vehement outcry. Slowly, he realized that his mate was more composed than disenchanted. Confused, he inquired her why she wasn't upset with him, and Gia's response stunned Alex tremendously.

"There's no need to pointlessly blather, Alex. I've pondered about this since we were at the playground. It's true that I'm still scared of what could happen, but I don't want you to get frustrated- you might snap. People would call me crazy for saying this, but fuck it: we should try to put our worries behind us and have sex."

Alex reflected what Gia had said. He noted that her voice and facial expression specified how nervous she was. Without a doubt, the jaguar not only felt foolish by her proposal, but very fearful of the danger she was putting herself into. Alex himself felt uneasy when he used to feel excited. He also found a connection between her suggestion of sex and his vow to keep his urges in their place, which utterly confounded him. Then again, she said he could get frustrated and then snap; he knew what she was talking about and the severe consequences that would follow, effectively ending their marriage and circus act.

After careful consideration, Alex gave Gia an answer.

"Gia, I'm not going to be vague about this," he began. "Just because there's a bottle of lube doesn't automatically mean we should fuck; to me it's like you're being pressured to do it. But I get what you're saying, one hundred percent. You don't want to see me upset just as I don't with you. It still doesn't mean we should fuck, but...in all honesty, I don't know how else to respond.

"So, let me try to make a deal with you. Out of all the fantasies I've had, I got just the one for tonight. It's slow, it's pleasurable, I'm sure you'll enjoy it; but, if you feel uncomfortable in any way, squeeze my arm and I'll stop. And how about this: the next time we fuck is your call, okay?"

Gia looked up at Alex with a benign smile. "This is why I love you," she said. "You show me how considerate and sympathetic you are, no matter what situation we're in."

"And being good has its rewards," Alex added as he and Gia held paws and strolled to the door.

Once they were in their enclosure and the bottle of lubricant was in reach, the explicit fun commenced. The felines' gratification sprouted as they rapturous kissed and gradually increased as their movements did. True to his word, Alex kept the speed of his actions at a leisure pace, which heightened the sense of euphoria within him. Even in the faint moonlight, he could tell that Gia was enjoying every moment of their venereal act. She occasionally moaned "yes" and "Alex, non fermarti". Alex didn't speak Italian but it didn't matter. The use of foreign words always occurred in his fantasies and would excite him extensively; and now that one of his fantasies was coming to life, his jubilation had reached a level higher than any of his emotions could ever achieve.

Alex awoke the next morning with Gia nestled beside him. He smiled and kept himself motionless. His distinctive mane was a little messy from the previous night, yet he showed no interest in tending to it. Instead, after laying still for ten seconds, the lion carefully positioned his body to duplicate the posture of his mate so their noses could touch. Gia did not stir but Alex swore she giggled in her sleep. Given that she didn't squeeze his arm while they were making love, the lion was fully assured that his jaguar wife was unhurt and that, despite the obvious differences from a real honeymoon, their honeymoon was a splendid success.

From the door of the enclosure, a conversation between two zoo employees became audible.

"Do we have to bathe all the animals?" one employee groaned.

"That's what we've been ordered to do," the other employee replied. "Let's start with the dogs and then those lemurs."

"You know, I heard some purring last night," said the first employee; "from this enclosure. Do you think that-"

"Bullshit!" scoffed the second employee. "You know that the jaguar is unable to breed!"

The volume of the voices decreased until silence took their place.

Alex was glad everyone was going to have a bath. He and Gia definitely needed one. While he waited for his mate to wake up, he hoped that there was a toothbrush somewhere in the zoo- he wanted to have his tongue cleaned before breakfast.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just so you don't have to translate it yourselves, the phrase " _Alex, non fermarti_ " means " _Alex, don't stop_ " in Italian.


End file.
